Flamsteed’s Virgo
date: label: date made
content: 1729
notes: label: Description
content: Appointed in 1675 to the newly created post of Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed (1646-1719) compiled the first telescopic catalog of the positions and magnitudes of stars visible from Greenwich. He also prepared a set of celestial charts that, in his words, were to be “the glory of the work, and, next the catalogue, the usefullest part of it.” In 1729 these charts were published in the <i>Atlas Coelestis by the late Reverend Mr. John Flamsteed Regius Professor of Astronomy at Greenwich</i>.
label: Description
content: This chart is from that work. It extends from 65° to 115° North Polar Distance and from 11h to 15h Right Ascension. It is drawn on a Sanson-Flamsteed sinusoidal projection. It shows the stars of magnitudes 1 to 7, with the brighter ones identified by Bayer letters.
label: Description
content: Working from Flamsteed’s catalog and manuscript maps, Abraham Sharp drew the coordinates and positioned the stars. James Thornhill (and other artists whose names are not known) drew the constellation figures. And various engravers in London and Amsterdam prepared the copper plates from which the prints could be made.
label: Description
content: Ref: Deborah Warner, <i>The Sky Explored. Celestial Cartography 1500-1800</i> (New York, 1979), pp. 80-82.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England
topic: label: Subject
content: Astronomy
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Prints from the Physical Sciences Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.329964
label: catalog number
content: 329964
label: accession number
content: 286289
objectType: label: Object Name
content: print
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 21 in x 27 in; 53.34 cm x 68.58 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 24 3/4 in x 30 1/2 in x 7/8 in; 62.865 cm x 77.47 cm x 2.2225 cm