The Swan and The Armillary

Every year alternative photography ask members to submit an image for consideration for their calendar and journal for the following year. The theme for 2026 was ‘A Tribute to John Herschel’.

John Herschel was a polymath: mathematics, chemistry and astronomy as well as photography were among his many interests.

Herschel invented the cyanotype photographic process in 1842. He was looking for a way to make copies of his writings.

(The cyanotype process was then pioneered by Anna Atkins who was the first person to publish a book with photographic images in 1853)

One of the many things he achived was the construction of a large telescope and with this he observed the night sky and documented nebulae (giant clouds of dust and gas in space) which have been instrumental in our subsequent understanding of the structure of the universe.

He was particularly interested in double stars of which he discovered and documented over 2,000 – these are pairs of stars that are gravitationally bound and orbiting together. They are important in astrophysics for studying stellar formation, stellar physics, and cosmology.

The constellation Cygnus has a very prominent bright double star (Albireo A and B) and can be seen in the Northern hemisphere in summer and autumn. It is so called becasue it resebles a flying swan.

For my tribute piece I used the cyanotype process to create an image that combined an image of a swan and of an armillary sphere.

Armillary spheres are mathematical instruments designed to demonstrate the movement of the celestial sphere with the earth at its centre.

I am delighted that my work has been selected for both the calendar and the journal.