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On this day in 1825 – May 20th – American astronomer George Phillips Bond was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

He succeeded his father, William Cranch Bond, as director of Harvard College Observatory. And he is considered by many to be the father of astrophotography, his achievements including taking the first photograph of a star (Vega in 1850), and of the double star Alcor and Mizar in Ursa Major in 1857. He also discovered several comets and carried out studies of Saturn and the Orion Nebula.