John Flamsteed
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A small, attractive and earnest head and shoulders portrait of John Flamsteed, founder of the Greenwich Observatory and the first astronomer royal of England. Flamsteed was born August 19th 1646 in Denby, near Derby, and died at Greenwich December 31st 1719. He studied astronomy alone before continuing his studies at Cambridge and in 1675 reported to the Royal Society the need for a new observatory. The Royal Observatory at Greenwich is the result of his report. Flamsteed's star catalogue published in 1725 was one of the most accurate produced to date. He is also renowned for the controversy regarding the earlier publication of his stellar observations when they were needed by both Isaac Newton and Edmund Halley.
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