Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10251
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Method of observing the Sun at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
Date
1676
Creator
Francis Place (1647 - 1728, British) , Painter
After
Robert Thacker (British) , Draftsman
Object type
Library reference
Tracts/X32/4
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 230mm
width (print): 350mm
width (print): 350mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Interior view of a darkened chamber at the old Royal Observatory building, with a refracting telescope projecting an image of the Sun. The observatory was completed in 1676: in that year there were both solar eclipses and a transit of Mercury.
Plate 3 (left half detail) from Ichnographia speculae Regiae Grenovici exquisite facta (London, 1676) a series of engravings commissioned by Sir Jonas Moore, the leading force in the construction and equipping of the original Royal Greenwich Observatory. The plate bears the inscription: “Domus Obscurata ad Maculas, Eclipsesque Solares Excipiendas, peropportuna ”.
Sir Jonas Moore (1617-1679) mathematician and patron of astronomy was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1674.
Plate 3 (left half detail) from Ichnographia speculae Regiae Grenovici exquisite facta (London, 1676) a series of engravings commissioned by Sir Jonas Moore, the leading force in the construction and equipping of the original Royal Greenwich Observatory. The plate bears the inscription: “Domus Obscurata ad Maculas, Eclipsesque Solares Excipiendas, peropportuna ”.
Sir Jonas Moore (1617-1679) mathematician and patron of astronomy was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1674.
Associated place