Virgo. Image source: Bode, Johann Elert. Uranographia. Berlin, 1801, pl. 14.

Out of This World

The Golden Age of the Celestial Atlas

Pardies, Ignace-Gaston. Globi coelestis...seconde edition. Paris, 1690.

The Pardies star charts included the positions not only of the stars, but of historically important comets. This innovation was probably inspired by Lubieniecki's Theatrum, 1666-68, which featured many star maps whose sole purpose was to track significant comets. The 1674 edition of Pardies's atlas showed the paths of the famous comets of 1577, 1607, 1619, and 1664-5, and the primary revision made for this 1690 edition was to add in the paths of more recent comets. 

Detail of Bootes and Virgo, showing comets of 1619 and 1682. Image source: Pardies, Ignace Gaston. Globi coelestis. Second edition. Paris: Chez Guillaume Vallet, 1690.

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Enlargement of path of the comet of 1682. Image source: Pardies, Ignace Gaston. Globi coelestis. Second edition. Paris: Chez Guillaume Vallet, 1690.

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In the plate above we see the lower part of the constellation Bootes, and near his left leg is plotted the comet of 1619 as observed by Kepler. This path had also been depicted in the first edition. But now another comet path has been included, through his right foot, that of the comet of 1682, as observed by Cassini. This comet is better known today as Halley's comet.

To compare this image with the corresponding detail from the 1674 atlas see below, and to see an enlarged detail of the path of Halley's comet see right. Barely visible just below Virgo is the comet of 1680, sometimes known as Newton's comet, since Isaac Newton published a diagram of its orbit as a frontispiece to his Principia, (1687).

L: Detail of Bootes right leg. Image source: Pardies, Ignace Gaston. Globi coelestis. Paris: Excudebat Sebastianus Mabre Cramoisy, 1674. View Source »

R: Path of comet of 1682. Image source: Pardies, Ignace Gaston. Globi coelestis. Second edition. Paris: Chez Guillaume Vallet, 1690. View Source »