First Moon Shot

Photograph of the moon done by the sun

Today in 1840,  John William Draper took the first detailed photograph of the moon.

Photograph of the Moon by John Draper, 1840

The photograph was a 20-minute-long daguerreotype image using a 5-inch (13 cm) reflecting telescope. Among his many occupations and interests, Draper was the first president of the American Chemical Society and a founder of the New York University School of Medicine.  

In 1839–1840, Draper produced clear photographs of human faces, including that of his sister Dorothy Catherine Draper. In 1843, he made daguerreotypes of the solar spectrum that revealed new infrared and ultra violet lines. Draper may have been introduced to the daguerreotype process by Samuel Morse who called it “one of the most beautiful discoveries of the age” and took in 1839 the first or one of the first surviving human photographic portraits—of John Draper.

John Draper by Samuel Morse, 1839