Astrophotography with the Schmidt Telescope

The objective of this book is to present a collection of photographs of astronomical objects taken with large Schmidt telescope; particular the one at Karl-Schwarzschild-Observatory Tautenberg, but also at the Anglo-Australian Observatory and the European Southern Observatory. The Schmidt telescope is a special photographic telescope which uses a spherical, rather than parabolic, main mirror. This results in an extremely large field of view and good resolution. The book contains photographs of galactic nebulae of different species, galactic and globular clusters of stars, stellar fields, external galaxies and comets. Facing each photograph is a text which introduces the object to the reader and explains its appearance, characteristic data and its physical nature. Extensive information on the history of the astronomical telescope, the Schmidt telescope and the life of its inventor is given in the accompanying chapters.