Weinek, Ladislaus (1848-1913).

"Selenographical Studies, based on negatives of the Moon taken at the Lick Observatory," in: Publications of the Lick Observatory, vol. 3, pp. [v-viii], 1-130. – Sacramento: State Office, 1894.

Weinek was Director of the Prague Observatory, and he specialized in extracting every possible detail from lunar photographic negatives taken by other observatories. In the early 1890's he investigated the possibility of making drawings from negatives to replace positive prints. In this publication, the drawings were printed by the photogravure process, and Weinek also included photogravures of positive prints from the same negatives, so that comparisons could be made between drawing and print. Some of the drawings, such as that of Copernicus, took upwards of 200 hours at the microscope.

This drawing of Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises) was based on a negative taken at the Lick Observatory August 23, 1888. Weinek began with a faint positive enlargement on special paper, and then spent 35 hours highlighting with watercolors. The resulting drawing contains slightly more detail than the direct positive print, and is much more pleasing to the eye. Weinek's artwork may be compared with Tobias Mayer's drawing of a century earlier (see item 20). Image source: Publications of the Lick Observatory, vol. 3, 1894, pl. 2

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