Cosmigraphics (Picturing Space Through Time) - Michael Benson

In Cosmigraphics, Michael Benson, author of ground-breaking books of space photography, turns his attention to the history of the visual description and mapping of the universe. This is a story that begins in myth and ends with science. Selecting the most artful and profound examples of cosmic imagery, Benson chronicles successive cosmological models that capture our growing awareness of humanity's place in nature, from terracentric to heliocentric to "galactocentric" to our current disaggregated decenteredness; shows how the invention and perfection of the telescope forced wondrous visions of unimaginable places; and explains why today photography alone cannot reveal the deeper truths about time and space in images.