Anleitung zur Kenntniss des Gestirnten Himmels by Bode 1801

Anleitung zur Kenntniss des Gestirnten Himmels by Bode - 1801

The English translation of the title is "Instructions for Knowing the Starry Sky". This was Bode's most popular book. In this book Bode expanded upon the 'law' introduced by Johann Daniel Titius that attempted to explain the spacing of the planetary orbits, which latter became known as the Titius–Bode law. After the discovery of Neptune the law fell out of favor since it failed to explain the placement of Neptune. At the end of this book Bode had 12 star charts that showed the constellations visible during each month of the year. These were among the first star charts to show the constellations on a monthly basis. These star charts are usually missing, but they are present in this volume. However, the charts have been removed but they have luckily remained with the book. A previous owner removed the charts so that they could use the charts without being hindered by the book. Some of the stars are hand colored, probably by the same person that removed the charts from the book. I have a number of hand colored charts from other editions of this book that can be seen here Bode Hand Colored Star Charts.