From Builder to Stargazer: Isaac Roberts' Epic Galaxy Snap Adventure

Isaac Roberts was a remarkable man who managed to combine his career as a builder with his passion for astronomy. Born in 1829 on a farm near Denbigh, he moved to Liverpool at the age of seven and became a successful builder. Despite his busy work life, Isaac was fascinated by the night sky and spent his evenings exploring the stars. His curiosity led him to take classes in geology, chemistry, electricity, and astronomy at the Liverpool Mechanics Institute, making up for the education he missed as a child.

Isaac's interest in science was closely tied to his work in construction, as he studied how water moved through sandstone and the challenges of building on such surfaces. As he became more established in his career, he found more time to pursue astronomy. He built an observatory in Merseyside, equipped with a powerful telescope that had a 20-inch reflecting mirror and a 7-inch refractor for tracking. The telescope was attached to a camera that used glass plates to capture images of the night sky. Isaac's most important invention was a clockwork mechanism that kept the telescope focused on the same spot for 105 minutes, allowing him to take much clearer photographs than anyone before him. His method revealed over a thousand stars in a single image, compared to just a few dozen in earlier photos.

In 1888, Isaac Roberts made history by taking the first clear photograph of the Andromeda galaxy, the closest large galaxy to our own Milky Way. His photo showed the spiral structure and mysterious dark lines of Andromeda, convincing many people who had doubted that galaxies could have such shapes. Later, scientists like Professor Stephen Eales from Cardiff University recognized the importance of Isaac's work. Modern telescopes use computers to track stars, but Isaac's mechanical solution was revolutionary for its time. In 2010, a space observatory captured the same image Isaac had taken more than a century earlier, revealing even more details about the galaxy. Isaac moved to Sussex later in life to escape pollution and find clearer skies, and he married Dorothea Klumpke, an astronomer from Paris. Together, they photographed many constellations and published their findings. Isaac Roberts left a lasting legacy in astronomy, showing how determination and creativity can lead to groundbreaking discoveries.