约翰·佛兰斯蒂德John Flamsteed

约翰·佛兰斯蒂德的父亲是一位相当富有的商人。然而佛兰斯蒂德的母亲在他还是个孩子时就去世了，这影响了他的成长。

佛兰斯蒂德就读于德比免费学校，该校为孩子们接受大学教育做准备。然而，佛兰斯蒂德的生活并不顺利，他在14岁时出现了严重的健康问题。一种慢性风湿病导致他的父亲决定不送他上大学。佛兰斯蒂德极为失望，但他没有让这阻碍他学习。

1662年至1669年间，佛兰斯蒂德在没有老师帮助的情况下自学天文学。事实上，他似乎并不怀念正规教学，但他的父亲继续反对他的学习，这给佛兰斯蒂德造成的困难远大于他无法听课这一事实。佛兰斯蒂德的父亲始终坚称，他反对儿子学习是因为儿子身体不好，但佛兰斯蒂德在晚年的通信中暗示，他父亲可能有其他动机。由于佛兰斯蒂德的母亲在他年幼时去世，佛兰斯蒂德作为照看家庭的人对父亲很有用。无论这是否是他父亲的动机，佛兰斯蒂德肯定对父亲感到怨恨。

佛兰斯蒂德于1671年开始进行系统观测。他也开始与Henry Oldenburg和约翰·柯林斯通信。这两人安排佛兰斯蒂德在佛兰斯蒂德于1670年访问伦敦的皇家学会期间与约纳斯·摩尔会面。约纳斯·摩尔成为他的赞助人，并说服查理二世授予特许状，以便剑桥大学耶稣学院能在1674年授予佛兰斯蒂德硕士学位。

1675年2月，佛兰斯蒂德抵达伦敦，住在约纳斯·摩尔处，约纳斯·摩尔安排佛兰斯蒂德觐见国王查理二世，请求建立皇家天文台。事实上，佛兰斯蒂德在某种程度上已经为获得国王的青睐铺平了道路，因为他在前一年为查理二世和约克公爵制作了气压计和温度计。1675年3月4日，国王通过皇家特许状任命佛兰斯蒂德为他的天文观测员。从100英镑的薪水中，他必须缴纳10英镑的税款，还要自备所有仪器。格林威治的皇家天文台为他的观测而建造并配备设备，他于1676年开始在那里观测。

佛兰斯蒂德于1675年被授予圣职，从1684年起获得萨里郡伯斯托教区的收入。1677年，他当选为皇家学会会士。

佛兰斯蒂德是一位技艺精湛的观测者，在皇家天文台有若干观测计划，以回答重大问题。在他的其他成就中，佛兰斯蒂德发明了圆锥投影，这是一种用于制图学的将球面投影到平面的重要投影。

艾萨克·牛顿需要数据来理解月球的轨道，这是一个难题，艾萨克·牛顿将他的万有引力定律应用于此。佛兰斯蒂德似乎从未完全理解艾萨克·牛顿需要什么，两人关系并不融洽，事实上佛兰斯蒂德是个完美主义者，不是个容易相处的人。

在[1]中，他被描述如下：-

他有一种只能被描述为毫不妥协的态度，即使按照一个放纵时代的标准，他也是一个放纵的人。他热情所系的具体而持久的主题是爱德蒙·哈雷。佛兰斯蒂德 大量通信的最后三十年里充满了对那个本应是他最自然的盟友的人的谩骂之词。

很难确切说出为什么佛兰斯蒂德对爱德蒙·哈雷如此怨恨，但他们的个性肯定发生了冲突，而他们之间也一定存在某种职业上的嫉妒。佛兰斯蒂德与爱德蒙·哈雷之间关于出版他精心制作的观测结果的斗争在[2]中有所描述：-

佛兰斯蒂德晚年的生活是在关于出版他出色观测结果的争议中度过的。他努力将它们扣留到完成为止，但艾萨克·牛顿和爱德蒙·哈雷等人迫切需要它们。艾萨克·牛顿通过皇家学会领导了立即出版它们的运动。1704年，丹麦的乔治王子承担了出版费用，尽管王子于1708年去世且佛兰斯蒂德反对，这些不完整的观测结果仍由爱德蒙·哈雷编辑，并于1712年印刷了400份。佛兰斯蒂德后来设法烧毁了其中300份。

佛兰斯蒂德确实于1725年出版了他的星表Historia Coelestis Britannica，其中包含3000颗恒星的数据。它列出的恒星比以往任何出版物都多，并且给出的位置要准确得多。具有讽刺意味的是，他最大的敌人爱德蒙·哈雷竟接替他成为第二任皇家天文学家。

John Flamsteed's father was a business man who was quite wealthy. Flamsteed's mother however died when he was still a child and this affected his upbringing.

Flamsteed attended Derby free school which prepared children for a university education. However life did not go smoothly for Flamsteed who, at the age of 14, developed severe health problems. A chronic rheumatic condition led to his father deciding not to send him to university. Flamsteed was extremely disappointed but he did not let it prevent him from studying.

Between 1662 and 1669 Flamsteed studied astronomy on his own without the help of teachers. In fact he does not seem to have missed the formal teaching but his father continued to oppose his studies and this made far more difficulties for Flamsteed than the fact that he could not attend lectures. Flamsteed's father always maintained that it was because of his son's ill health that he opposed his studying but Flamsteed, in his correspondence in later life, suggested that his father may have had other motives. Since Flamsteed's mother had died when he was young, Flamsteed was useful to his father as someone to look after the home. Whether or not this was his father's motive, certainly Flamsteed felt bitterness towards his father.

Flamsteed began systematic observations in 1671. He also began corresponding with Henry Oldenburg and John Collins. These two arranged for Flamsteed to meet Jonas Moore during a visit Flamsteed made to the Royal Society in London in 1670. Moore became his patron and persuaded Charles II to grant a warrant so that Jesus College Cambridge could award an M.A. to Flamsteed in 1674.

In February 1675 Flamsteed arrived in London to stay with Moore and Moore arranged that Flamsteed visit the King, Charles II, to ask for a Royal Observatory. In fact Flamsteed had to some extent paved the way to find favour with the King, having made a barometer and a thermometer for Charles II and the Duke of York in previous year. On 4 March 1675 the King appointed Flamsteed his astronomical observer by Royal Warrant. From his salary of £100 he had to pay £10 taxes and also provide all his own instruments. The Royal Observatory at Greenwich was built and equipped for his observations and he began observing there in 1676.

Ordained in 1675, Flamsteed received the income of the living of Burstow, Surrey from 1684. In 1677 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.

Flamsteed was a skilled observer and had a number of observing programmes at the Royal Observatory to answer major questions. Among his other achievements was the fact that Flamsteed invented the conical projection, an important projection of the sphere onto a plane which is used in cartography.

Newton required data for his understanding of the orbit of the Moon, a difficult problem to which Newton applied his universal law of gravity. Flamsteed never quite seemed to understand what Newton required and the two were not on the best of terms, in fact Flamsteed was a perfectionist and was not an easy man to get on with.

In [1] he is described as follows:-

Possessed of an attitude that can only be described as uncompromising, he was an intemperate man even by the standards of an intemperate age. The particular and enduring subject of his passion was Edmond Halley. The last thirty years of Flamsteed's extensive correspondence is infused with vituperative remarks about the man who should have been his most natural ally.

It is hard to say exactly why Flamsteed was so bitter towards Halley but their personalities certainly clashed while there must have been a certain professional jealousy between them. The battle Flamsteed had with Halley over the publication of his carefully made observations is described in [2]:-

The latter part of Flamsteed's life passed in controversy over the publication of his excellent observations. He struggled to withhold them until completed, but they were urgently needed by Isaac Newton and Edmond Halley, among others. Newton, through the Royal Society, led the movement for their immediate publication. In 1704 Prince George of Denmark undertook the cost of publication, and, despite the prince's death in 1708 and Flamsteed's objections, the incomplete observations were edited by Halley, and 400 copies were printed in 1712. Flamsteed later managed to burn 300 of them.

Flamsteed did publish his star catalogue Historia Coelestis Britannica in 1725 containing data on 3000 stars. It listed more stars and gave their positions considerably more accurately than any other previous publication had done. It was ironical that his greatest enemy, Halley, should succeed him as the second Astronomer Royal.