Person: Flamsteed, John
John Flamsteed was an English astronomer who published accurate astronomical observations and was the first Astronomer Royal.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- However life did not go smoothly for Flamsteed who, at the age of 14, developed severe health problems.
- Flamsteed was extremely disappointed but he did not let it prevent him from studying.
- Between 1662 and 1669 Flamsteed studied astronomy on his own without the help of teachers.
- Flamsteed began systematic observations in 1671.
- He also began corresponding with Henry Oldenburg and John Collins.
- These two arranged for Flamsteed to meet Jonas Moore during a visit Flamsteed made to the Royal Society in London in 1670.
- On 4 March 1675 the King appointed Flamsteed his astronomical observer by Royal Warrant.
- Ordained in 1675, Flamsteed received the income of the living of Burstow, Surrey from 1684.
- Flamsteed was a skilled observer and had a number of observing programmes at the Royal Observatory to answer major questions.
- Among his other achievements was the fact that Flamsteed invented the conical projection, an important projection of the sphere onto a plane which is used in cartography.
- Flamsteed never quite seemed to understand what Newton required and the two were not on the best of terms, in fact Flamsteed was a perfectionist and was not an easy man to get on with.
- The last thirty years of Flamsteed's extensive correspondence is infused with vituperative remarks about the man who should have been his most natural ally.
- It is hard to say exactly why Flamsteed was so bitter towards Halley but their personalities certainly clashed while there must have been a certain professional jealousy between them.
- In 1704 Prince George of Denmark undertook the cost of publication, and, despite the prince's death in 1708 and Flamsteed's objections, the incomplete observations were edited by Halley, and 400 copies were printed in 1712.
- Flamsteed later managed to burn 300 of them.
- Flamsteed did publish his star catalogue Historia Coelestis Britannica in 1725 containing data on 3000 stars.
Born 19 August 1646, Denby (near Derby), Derbyshire, England. Died 31 December 1719, Greenwich, London, England.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Astronomy, Geography, Origin England
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
