A Celestial Atlas by James Middleton 1842

"A Celestial Atlas Containing Maps of all the Constellations Visible in Great Britain, with Corresponding Blank Maps of the Stars, Systematically Arranged for Communicating a Practical Knowledge of the Heavens" by James Middleton - 1842

Here is a copy of Middleton's Celestial Atlas that was published in 1842. This copy was professionally re-backed some time in the past and the charts have some water stains. What I like about this atlas is that it presents two versions of each chart, one being white stars on a plain background and the other having black stars on a white background with colored mythological constellation figures. This atlas was also published with uncolored constellation figures but those copies are very hard to find. This atlas filled the same niche in the United Kingdom that Elijah Burritt's atlas filled in the United States and thus most copies are well used, but Middleton's atlas was at least bound with a hard cover. Middleton's atlas seems to be harder to find than Burritt's atlas. There were only two editions that I know of (1842 and 1846), which may explain the relative scarcity of this atlas. This atlas was also provided with an accompanying book that is probably more scarce than the atlas in that I have only seen two copies of the book.