Rev. John Flamsteed

First Astronomer Royal

Born: 1646 Denby, Derbyshire, England
Died: 1719
Buried: St Bartholomew's Church, Burstow, Surrey, England
Astronomer Royal: 1675 - 1719

Flamsteed was ordained in 1671 but became interested in Astronomy when he was forced to postpone university due to ill health. He went on to get a degree at Jesus College Cambridge. Before his appointment at Greenwich his work in astronomy had included the observation of a solar eclipse in 1662 and determining solar parallax from observations of Mars.

The Governmental Office of Ordinance provided money for the building and for salaries.  The equipment came from donation and bought by Flamsteed himself.  Flamsteed laboriously compiled detailed observations of star positions. His most famous achievement at the Observatory was to produce a 3000 star British Catalogue.  In addition to this work he made observations of the made tables of the Sun's motion, measured the latitude of Greenwich, calculated the inclination of the ecliptic and the position of the equinoxes, created tables of atmospheric refraction, and tidal patterns, and devised a method of observing absolute Right Ascension.

Later in life Flamsteed argued with both Newton and Halley.  Relations became worse in 1712 when Halley published a private edition of Flamsteed's observations without his permission. Of the 400 copies of Historia Coelestis, published Flamsteed recovered 300 and burn them after removing the 97 pages he considered to have been untampered with. His observations were finally published as Flamsteed had intended in 1725 after his death.

Established the first Meridian Line in Greenwich