E E Barnard, 100 years ago!
The december 2005 Sky and Telescope issue has a great article on Edward E Barnard who 100 years ago wrote his "Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way".
Apparently, he pictured many areas of the Milky Way that were not known at the time with sometimes 4 hours long exposures...(even 8 in 2 nights) And he also discovered things in the process (for instance, he understood the dark areas were not holes but clouds). Some of his photographies.
He was at times really scared, alone in the dark, away from civilization, in the cold winter nights, hearing strange noises...