Johann Elert Bode
Johann Elert Bode
Bode was born in Hamburg.
Bode was the director of the Berlin Observatory, where he published the Uranographia in 1801, a celestial atlas that aimed both at scientific accuracy in showing the positions of stars and other astronomical objects, as well as the artistic interpretation of the stellar constellation figures. In particular for the latter the Uranographia marks the end, and climax, of an epoch. Later atlasses showed less and less elaborated figures, until they were not printed anymore at all on such tables.
He also published an astronomical yearbook, another, small celestial atlas, intended for astronomical amateurs (Vorstellung der Gestirne), and an introductory book to the constellations and their tales, which had more than ten reprints.
He died in Berlin.