Selenographia: first detailed atlas of the Moon
Selenographia: primer atlas detallado de la Luna
- Date
- 1647 · confidence high
- Place
- Gdańsk, Pomerania, Poland
- Credited to
- Johannes Hevelius
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
A lunar atlas with 40 plates engraved by the author himself from years of telescope observations, including maps of the Moon at different phases and its libration. It established selenography as a discipline.
Hevelius took names from terrestrial geography (the Alps, Apennines…); some survive, but Riccioli's names of scholars prevailed for craters.
What it led to
- the reference map of the Moon for over a century
- study of lunar libration
- selenographic nomenclature (Riccioli's of 1651 would eventually prevail)