Cataloging the Sky: John Flamsteed and the Royal Greenwich Observatory

Logo Exhibit "Cataloguing the Sky", Houghton

Date and Time

January 1 - April 24, 2026
All day

Location

History of Ideas Case, Houghton Library, Harvard Yard

In celebration of the Royal Greenwich Observatory’s 350th anniversary, the work on display is one of the few surviving copies of a pirated edition of star charts produced by the observatory’s inaugural Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, without his permission. Outraged, the latter unrelentingly hunted down every copy of the work he could, and ultimately burned some 300 of the 400 printed.


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