1895 PARIS OBSERVATOIRE LOEWY & PUISEAUX LARGE PHOTO MECHANICAL LUNAR PRINT

Large photographic reproduction, 31 by 31 inches (sight), bearing the printed captions in the margins: "Grand Equatorial Coude, Observatoire de Paris, Diamètre Lunaire 2m77, Agrandissement 16, 16 fois, 1895 Mars 4, 6h 6 t.m. Paris." Horizontal tear through center, which appears to be repaired or otherwise reinforced — not examined out of frame. Matted and framed to 43 by 43 inches. 

A MAGNIFICENT OVERSIZED PRINT OF A PLATE FROM LOEWY AND PUISEUX'S LUNAR ATLASLoewy and Puiseux's  "L'Atlas photographique de la Lune" was one of the most ambitious astronomical projects of the 19th century. In 1891 Maurice Loewy, director of the Paris Observatory, oversaw the installation of the large coudé equatorial telescope. Together with his colleague Pierre Puiseux, he used it to create a sweeping photographic atlas of the Moon, published in parts from 1896 to 1910. When Loewy died in 1907, Puiseux, assisted by Charles Le Morvan, completed the series of photographs. This body of work would go on to become the definitive basis for lunar geography for over half a century — in fact it was only with NASA’s Lunar Orbiter program in the 1960s that substantially better images were obtained.