Celestial floor globe

Celestial floor globe. It forms a pair with the terrestrial globe, Blaeu GLB0104. Astronomical details on the sphere include a magnitude table close to the North Pole. The Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds are labelled. Close to the North Pole, there are two tables in a cartouche, one explaining the astrological symbols marked on the sphere and the other explaining the precession with a table based on a constant precession rate.

There are novae with explanations in Cassiopeia, Cyngus and Ophiuchus with the first and last observed positions (!) marked. A total of 83 stars and up to eight star groups are named; some of the stars are also named in Arabic script. The 48 Ptolemaic constellations and four of the non-Ptolemaic constellations are drawn. The 12 southern constellations of Plancius are also drawn. The nomenclature for some of the Ptolemaic constellations is extensively detailed and some of them are given in Greek, followed by the name in Arabic script. There are a few manuscript additions for missing text in some of the names.

The constellations are said to be in the tradition of Mercator, but this is not the case. For this 680 mm globe Blaeu relied on the style used by Johann Bayer in his Uranometria of 1603. For full details about the cartography and construction of this globe please refer to the related publication.

Object Details

ID: GLB0105
Collection: Astronomical and navigational instruments; Charts and maps
Type: Floor globe
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Blaeu, Willem Jansz; Petrus Plancius, Petrus
Date made: circa 1650
People: Brahe, Tycho
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection
Measurements: Overall: 1080 x 897 mm; Diameter of sphere: 680 mm; Diameter of Meridian Ring: 736 mm