The Correspondence of John Flamsteed, First Astronomer Royal: Volume II, 1682-1703
- Eric G. Forbes,
- Lesley Murdin &
- Frances Wilmoth
Institute of Physics Publishing: 1997. Pp.1,095 £140, $280)
“Tycho Brahe was borne an hundred yeares before me,” the first Astronomer Royal wrote in 1700, “His observatory built 100 years before ours. He labored about 25 yeares on his Catalogue, had a large estate of his owne with about 3000 dollars per Annum allowance from the King of Denmar[k] which in that cheap country and in those times was more than 3000 sterling here. He had 8 or 10 assistants. Yet with his large apparatus of Instruments and helpe he left us not more than 780 places of fixed stars…. When I sat down here I had onely £100 per Annum allowance from the Office of Ordnance, with a surly, silly laborer…. I was promised a Murall Instrument, but a freind of ours [Robert Hooke] contrived one so that it wa[s] useless to me…. Finding a large and weighty Instrument necessary, I contrived and began a new Murall Arch, but my servant died before the ribbs were joyned together…. I finisht it…. Now I have by me about 1800 places of fixed stars rectified in my Catalogue.”
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