Astro-porn, in a 19th century pen and ink stylie

Today's telescopic behemoths have spoiled us with stunning their images of astronomical phenomena. But you don't need millions of quid's worth of kit to capture the awesome beauty of the sky at night.

In the 19th century, a French entomologist-turned-astronomer Etienne Leopold Trouvelot (1827-1895), created more than 7,000 astronomical illustrations while working for the Harvard College observatory. Now these ball-bouncingly beautiful images have been digitised by the New York Library and made available to the public.

Here are just a few of these pre-Hubble wonders:

NB: Sadly, Trouvelot's most notable legacy was the introduction of one America's most destructive invasive species. As an amateur entomologist he decided to experiment with cross-breeding native silk moths (which were being killed off by various diseases) with the disease-resistant Gypsy Moth from Europe. While attempting to cultivate some imported eggs, some of the larvae escaped into the nearby woods and have been spreading ever since – leaving millions of dollars of damage in their wake.