What is John Flamsteed?
{{Infobox Scientist |name = John Flamsteed |image = John_Flamsteed.jpg |image_size = 220px |caption = |birth_date = 19 August 1646 |birth_place = [[Denby]], [[Derbyshire]], [[England]] |death_date = 31 December 1719 (aged 73) |death_place = [[Burstow]], [[Surrey]], [[England]] |nationality = [[England|English]] |field = [[Astronomy]] |work_institutions = |alma_mater = [[Jesus College, Cambridge]] |doctoral_advisor = |doctoral_students = |known_for = First [[Astronomer Royal]] |influences = |influenced = [[Joseph Crosthwait]]<br>[[Abraham Sharp]] |prizes = |footnotes = |signature = }} '''John Flamsteed''' [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] (19 August 1646 – 31 December 1719) was an [[England|English]] [[astronomer]]. He was the first [[Astronomer Royal]], appointed in 1675. Flamsteed calculated the [[solar eclipse]]s of 1666 and 1668. He was responsible for several of the earliest recorded sightings of the [[planet]] [[Uranus]], which he mistook for a [[star]] and catalogued as '34 Tauri'. The first of these was in December 1690, which remains the earliest known sighting of Uranus by an astronomer. == Star catalogue and atlas == Flamsteed is also remembered for his conflicts with [[Isaac Newton]], the President of the [[Royal Society]] at the time. Flamsteed was refusing to publish work commissioned by the king, so in 1712 Newton and [[Edmond Halley]] published a preliminary version of Flamsteed's ''Historia Coelestis Britannica''. They did so ''without crediting the author''. Some years later, Flamsteed managed to buy many copies of the book, and publicly burnt them in front of the [[Royal Observatory, Greenwich|Royal Observatory]]. However, the numerical star designations in this book are still used and are known as [[Flamsteed designation]]s. In 1725 Flamsteed's own version of ''Historia Coelestis Britannica'' was published posthumously, edited by his wife