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People: John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal
Page under construction
| Employment dates |
1675 – 31 December 1719 (see note below re: start date) |
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| Salary | £100 per year | ||
| Previous Posts | None | ||
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| Born | 1646, Aug 19 | Denby, Derbyshire | |
| Died | 1719, Dec 31 | Flamsteed House. Burried: Burstow Surrey, 1720, Jan 12 |
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| Known addresses | 1646 | Denby, Derbyshire | |
| 1670–1675 | Queen Street, Derby | ||
| 1675 | Tower of London | ||
| 1675–1676 | Queen's House, Greenwich | ||
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1676–1719 | Flamsteed House, Royal Observatory Greenwich | |
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| Additional Employment | 1684–1719 | Rector of Burstow |
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| 1681–1684 | Gresham Lecturer | ||
| Various dates | Maths teacher | ||
| Wealth at death | Approxiamately £2000 | ||
John Flamsteed. Line engraving by G. Vertue, 1721, after T. Gibson, 1712. Image courtesy of the Wellcome Collection (see below)
Royal Warrant for the building of the Observatory and the payment of Flamsteed's salary
Buildings
Telescopes
7-foot Equatorial Sextant (1676)
Hooke's 10-foot Mural Quadrant (1676)
Clocks
Other instruments
Correspondence
Publications
Atlas Coelestis
High resolution copy from the Linda Hall library (1729)
Burial and monuments
Modern papers
An analysis of the errors in John Flamsteed’s mural arc observations. William Blitstein, Vistas in Astronomy Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 139-155 (1997)
The seven identified observations of Uranus made by John Flamsteed using his mural arc. William Blitzstein, The Observatory, vol. 118, p9. 219-222 (1998)
Flamsteed's lunar data, 1692-95, sent to Newton. N Kollerstrom, & B.D. Yallop. Journal for the History of Astronomy, p.237-246 (1995)
Acknowlegements
The 1721 image of John Flamsteed is reproduced in compressed form and at a reduced size courtesy of Wellcome Library, London (Public Domain Mark)
© 2014 – 2025 Graham Dolan
Except where indicated, all text and images are the copyright of Graham Dolan