ABSTRACT
The leading English practical astronomer of his day. Flamsteed was appointed on March 4, 1675, as Charles II’s astronomical observator and director of the new observatory to be built shortly by the Ordnance Office in Greenwich Park. In effect he was the first Astronomer Royal, though this title was not yet formally used; he occasionally termed himself Astronomicus Regius but preferred to be Mathematicus Regius in imitation of Tycho Brahe (1564-1601) and Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). Despite perennial complaints about his slowness to publish results, and despite bitter public quarrels with Isaac Newton (1642-1727) and Edmond Halley (ca. 1656-1742) in his later years, he kept the post under five subsequent monarchs until his death. The publication of his star catalog and observations was initially assisted by sponsorship obtained from Prince George of Denmark (1653-1708), but this resulted only in the appearance of a volume edited by Edmond Halley as Historia coelestis (1712). In 1715 Flamsteed obtained the unsold copies of this work and burnt the parts he had not approved. His own threevolume Historia coelestis Britannica (1725) and Atlas coelestis (1729) were posthumous publications, produced by his wife, Margaret (née Cooke, ca. 1670-1730), with the aid of some of his former assistants.
