Abstract
John Flamsteed’s star catalogue, in the Historia Coelestis Britannica (1725), had already been in use for many decades, when in 1783 Jérôme de Lalande published a new edition, which introduced numbers for all the listed stars, a feature not found in Flamsteed’s own 1725 version of the catalogue. It is subject to debate, though, whether Lalande’s publication was indeed the first appearance of those “Flamsteed numbers.” In this paper, proof is given that the first excerpts of the new – and nowadays still used–numbering system of the Historia Coelestis Britannica occurred in print at least as early as 1765, in publications by Joseph-Nicolas Delisle and Charles Messier.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.