DOYLESTOWN, PA.- The James A. Michener Art Museum announces a spectacle of galactic proportions entitled Starstruck: The Fine Art of Astrophotography. The exhibition is curated by Anthony Shostak, the Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine, and will be on view through February 8, 2015.

Among the first major exhibitions examining astrophotography as an art genre, Starstruck presents a dazzling array of images that gives insight into this rapidly evolving field. The exhibition features stunning images by 34 artists from around the world. The installation features a variety of extraordinary themes, from landscapes and oceans to galaxies, moons and cavernous sky objects.

The exhibition, on loan from the Bates College Museum of Art, was selected by a distinguished team of jurors comprised of Weston Naef, curator emeritus of photography at the J. Paul Getty Museum; Dennis di Cicco, pioneer of CCD astrophotography and senior editor, Sky & Telescope magazine; and Jerry T. Bonnell, co-editor/author NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. A 242-page color catalog documents the exhibition, illustrating each photograph and featuring essays by the jurors and by Eric Wollman, professor of physics at Bates College.

Anthony Shostak, curator of education for the Bates College Museum of Art, shares that, “…the images in Starstruck are nothing less than overwhelming – depicting humbling, glorious delights that are often invisible to both the naked eye and even the telescope, and are revealed only through photographic means.”

Now a familiar topic in publications like Sky & Telescope and Astronomy magazines, astrophotography is a worldwide phenomenon, illustrating the convergence of art and science as told through the lens of a camera. Lisa Tremper Hanover, Director & CEO states, “We are delighted to host this exhibition and provide the Museum’s guests with a view of the vastness of our universe through the camera’s lens. The photographs illustrate an array of colors, beauty and mystique of the stars and planets that would not otherwise be visible to the naked eye.”