19th August 1646 – John Flamsteed born

John Flamsteed the first Astronomer Royal was born in Denby, Derbyshire, England on 19th August 1646.

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He is perhaps best known for calculating the solar eclipses of 1666 and 1668 and for the earliest recorded sighting of Uranus in December 1690. Flamsteed did not recognize Uranus for what it was so the credit for discovering Uranus goes to Sir William Herschel on 13th March 1781. As the first Astronomer Royal, Flamsteed laid the foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in August 1675.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 19th, 2007 at 15:05 and is filed under Astronomy, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to 19th August 1646 – John Flamsteed born

  1. 10th August 1675 - Royal Observatory, Greenwich « Dusty Loft says:
    10 August 2008 at 23:42

    […] King also created the position of Astronomer Royal. John Flamsteed was the first to hold that […]

    Reply
  2. 13th March 1781 - Uranus discovery announced « Dusty Loft says:
    13 March 2009 at 0:03

    […] William Herschel was not the first person to observe Uranus – John Flamsteed beat him to it. But Flamsteed did not recognise Uranus for what it was. The credit for the […]

    Reply
  3. Who Discovered Uranus? says:
    30 December 2010 at 16:53

    […] first observed as a star by astrologers during the early 17th century. In 1690, John Flamsteed, an English astronomer, observed Uranus a number of times before concluding the observation as a star. Record shows that […]

    Reply

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