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Historically, optical astronomy, also called visible light astronomy, is the oldest form of astronomy. Optical images were originally drawn by hand.
Scientists would call this visible light astronomy. It includes imaging, where a picture of some sort is made of the object; photometry, where the amount of light coming from an object is measured, spectroscopy, ...
Infrared radiation, having longer wavelengths and lower energy than visible light, does not have enough energy to interact with the photographic plates which are often used in visible light astronomy.
 See also: Detector, Wavelength, Telescope, Light, Infrared
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