Renaissance · Europe · Science

1647

Hevelius Maps the Moon

1647

From a rooftop observatory in Danzig, the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius published Selenographia, containing the most detailed maps of the lunar surface yet produced. He engraved the craters, the maria, and the mountain ranges with a jeweler's precision. The Moon, once a perfect celestial lantern, was now a world with geography and a cartographer.

More from 1647 Renaissance

In context

Also in 1647 (4 other events on record)

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Before and after in Europe

Before: 1646: Fall of Gage's Royalist Oxford
After: May 15, 1648: Peace of Westphalia Signed

Before and after in Science

Before: 1643: Torricelli Invents the Barometer
After: 1650: Population of Americas Collapses

Era

Renaissance (1501–1650), one of 715 events from that era on Saeculum.