Home > Timeline of astronomical maps, catalogs, and surveys

• 1800 BC - Babylonian star catalog
• 350 BC - Shin Shen 's star catalog has almost 800 entries
• 134 BC - Hipparchus makes a detailed star map
• ca. 140 - Ptolemy completes his Almagest, which contains a catalog of stars, observations of planetary motions, and treatises on geometry and cosmology
• 840 - al-Farghani Compendium of the Science of the Stars
• 963 - al-Sufi's star catalog Book of the Fixed Stars
• 1252Events Alfonso X of Castile, the Wise el Sabio Stockholm is founded by Birger Jarl (cf 1854) The widespread usage of torture by the Medieval Inquisition is introduced. The first European gold coins are minted. In the Italian city of Florence known as the- 1272Events August 6 Stephen V's death makes his son, Ladislaus, King of Hungary. November 20 Following Henry III of England's death on November 16, his son Prince Edward becomes King of England. Count Floris V of Holland makes an unsuccessful attack on Frisia - Alphonsine tables recorded
• 1437Events foundation of All Souls College, University of Oxford. Ulugh Beg's Zij-i-Sultani star catalog is published. Births Isaac Abrabanel (also called Isaac Abravanel, Isaac Abarbanel), Jewish statesman, philosopher and theologian Deaths February 21 James - Publication of Ulugh BegUlugh Beg ( 1394- October 27, 1449) was a Timurid astronomer, mathematician and sultan. His name also appears as Uluğ Bey Ulugh Bek and Ulug Bek''. The grandson of the conqueror Timur the Lame ( 1336- 1405) and oldest son of Shah Rukh, both of whom's Zij-i-Sultani
• late 16th century15th century 16th century 17th century more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. Events Beginning of the " Little Ice Age" a cooling period that resulted in lower crop yi - Tycho BraheTycho Brahe ( December 14, 1546 October 24, 1601) was a Danish nobleman, well known as an astronomer/ astrologer (the two were not yet distinct) and alchemist. He had Uraniborg built, which became an early " research institute". For purposes of publicatio updates Ptolemy's Almagest
• 1603Events March 24 Death of Elizabeth I of England her cousin King James VI of Scotland succeeds her uniting the crowns of Scotland and England April 28 Funeral of Elizabeth I of England in Westminster Abbey July 17 or July 19 Sir Walter Raleigh arrested for - Johann Bayer's Uranometria
• 1678 - Edmund Halley publishes a catalog of 341 southern stars, the first systematic southern sky survey
• 1726 - Posthumous publication of John Flamsteed's Historia Coelestis Britannica
• 1771 - Charles Messier publishes his first list of nebulae
• 1862 - Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander publishes his final edition of the Bonner Durchmusterung catalog of stars north of declination -1°.
• 1864 - John Herschel publishes the General Catalogue of nebulae and star clusters
• 1887 - Paris conference institutes Carte du Ciel project to map entire sky to 14th mag photographically
• 1890 - John Dreyer publishes the New General Catalogue of nebulae and star clusters
• 1932 - Harlow Shapley and Adelaide Ames publish A Survey of the External Galaxies Brighter than the Thirteenth Magnitude, later known as the Shapley-Ames Catalog
• 1950- 1957 - Completion of the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS) with the Palomar 48-inch Schmidt optical reflecting telescope. Actual date quoted varies upon source.
• 1962 - A.S. Bennett publishes the Revised 3C Catalog of 328 radio sources
• 1965 - Gerry Neugebauer and Robert Leighton begin a 2.2 micrometre sky survey with a 1.6-meter telescope on Mount Wilson
• 1982 - IRAS space observatory completes an all-sky mid- infrared survey
• 1990 - Publication of APM Galaxy Survey of 2+ million galaxies, to study Large-scale structure of the cosmos
• 1991 - ROSAT space observatory begins an all-sky X-ray survey
• 1993 - Start of the 20 cm VLA FIRST survey
• 1997 - Two Micron All Sky Survey ( 2MASS) commences
• 1998 - Sloan Digital Sky Survey commences
• 2003 - 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey published; 2MASS completes