Jules Verne 'Autour de la Lune' – Astronomers at the Telescope, 1870s

A worn top hat pressed urgently against a brass telescope eyepiece anchors the scene as two bearded Victorian gentlemen crowd around the instrument, their greyhound companion straining upward beside them. On the left, a chart or placard bearing the word 'LUNE' looms in the shadowed background. This masterfully crosshatched wood engraving captures a pivotal moment of lunar observation from Jules Verne's 'Autour de la Lune,' crackling with scientific excitement and 19th-century adventurous spirit.