Johann Elert Bode, Uranographia
Bode's Uranographia, published in 1801, was the last great atlas of the
celestial cartography. It contains eighteen maps and two planispheres with almost 17000 stars and 2500 nebulae and represents all the constellations defined by the cartographers during the three previous centuries.
After Bode the star atlases showed the tendency to eliminate the constellation figures and to replace them with lines that defined their boundaries.
The atlases became a professional tool and the artistic representation disappeared at all.
The Golden Age of the celestial cartography ended with Bode's Uranographia.
Cetus, Machina electrica, Apparatus chemicus and Apparatus sculptoris in Bode's atlas (Bibl. del Dip. di Astronomia di Bologna)
A cd-rom for a deeper view
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Author of these pages: Davide Neri - E-mail: ban2280@iperbole.bologna.it