The development of celestial mapping in China is discussed with particular regard both to the accuracy of construction and present-day utility of star maps from the pre-Jesuit period.

We have made a systematic investigation of the traditional Chinese stellar sky, using Yi-Shitong's precise stellar maps at the Amsterdam Zeiss Planetarium, reproducing the positions of pole, hour circles and equator for any epoch between 1000 and 3000 BC at the latitude of Xian.

The right ascensions of the 28 boundary hour circles of the traditional lunar lodges, as well as the declinations of the various determinative stars, give insight into the possible original meaning of star names and ages. The four cardinal directions along the celestial equator (α Hya, η Tau, β Aqr and Sco) fit best with 2250±50 years BC.

This is a summary of the publication “Brève histoire de la Carte du Ciel en France”. Th. Weimer, Observatoire de Paris Pub., 1987.

Improvements to the Greenwich Carte du Ciel telescope since its arrival at Herstmonceux are described. The original Oxford objective may be mounted on the same telescope. Both plate collections are held at Herstmonceux.

Surveying the entire sky requires very efficient instrumentation, if the project has to be done in a relatively short period. In this is a review of the existing photographic surveys, it is demonstrated that photography, because of its very large format, is still the best existing technique for survey purposes.

This paper reviews the Australian involvement in the “Carte du Ciel”. Four Australian observatories - Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth - undertook three zones of the Carte du Ciel project. This was about 18% of the total program and the Australian work took over 80 years to complete.

In 1864, the Rutherfurd's machine to measure stellar photographs proved the interest the astronomical photography could provide. The photographical method was developped for the observation of the transit of Venus on the Sun disc. In 1875, Brunner built a machine for this purpose; improved by the Henry's brothers, it became the prototype of the machine to measure stellar photographs ten years later. During the eighties and the nineties, other kinds of measuring machines were built; they constantly got many improvements. In 1927, for example, the Brunner's machine was remade to establish the linking catalogue.

T.N. Thiele participated in the astrographic conference in Paris 1887 and was the first theoretician to reduce and analyse the photographic plates of the Henry brothers. He was an enthusiastic supporter of photographic astrometry because of its elimination of personal errors. However, for different reasons he did not want the Copenhagen Observatory to take responsibility for a Carte du Ciel zone. Thiele's life and work and his plans for the development of astrometry are presented.

The installation of the “Carte du Ciel” instrument was of great transcendency for the history of the Instituto y Observatorio de Marina. After briefly outlining the main difficulties for the development of the Observatory by that time, the personality of Captain Pujazón, responsible of the improvement of his institute and organizer of the work of the astrograph at San Fernando, is commented. We describe the spanish participation in the “Carte du Ciel” campaign and the subsequent use of the instrument in different international programs until the present days. The profitableness of the astrograph in continuing to support some aspects of the modern astrometrical research, is concluded.

The star observations carried out by Giuseppe Piazzi with Ramsden's large altazimuth circle, which he began in 1792, led to the realization of a 1st and 2nd Catalogue, published by Piazzi in Palermo in 1803 and 1814.

During 1845, the original astronomical observations in Piazzi's catalogue, included in “La storia celeste of the Palermo Observatory from 1792 to 1814”, which had been kept at the Brera Observatory in Milan, were published in Vienna.

The publication of these observational data revealed a series of errors, real or presumed, which cast doubt on the reliability of the Palermo Catalogue.

Towards the end of the last century, upon the suggestion of Giovanni Schiaparelli, work on the reduction of Piazzi's catalogue was once again taken up for the purpose of producing an independent catalogue based on the original observations. This work, carried out by Francesco Porro, led to the production of a corrected catalogue purged of systematic and accidental errors.

The third fundamental star catalogue of Palermo may represent the basis for the final reduction of the great Palermo Catalogue of 7646 stars.

Tycho Brahe's work set a new standard of objectivity in empirical science. Aiming at an observational accuracy of one minute of arc he had to introduce corrections of atmospheric refraction. This proved to be anything but trivial, mainly because Tycho adopted the traditional value of 3′ for the parallax of the sun. This parameter measured the size of the entire planetary system which Tycho refrained from vizualizing larger than conventionally accepted.

The first plates for the great enterprise, the Carte du Ciel or the Astrographic Catalogue, were taken in 1891. At that time no fundamental system existed which was usable as a basis for reference stars over the whole sky and was commonly accepted by the astronomical community. Therefore reference stars were taken from available catalogues, sometimes updated to the epoch of the plates by application of proper motions. Other observatories used their own reference stars specially observed on transit circles. For the last-mentioned method the work at the Cape Observatory is an instructive example which was described by Sir David Gill, an experienced observer, in a catalogue of Astrographic Standard Stars (Gill, 1906). The methods of observation are fully described in the volumes of the Cape Meridian Observations. For the derivation of proper motions southern catalogues dating from 1835 to 1900 were used, applying Newcomb's values for precession. The determination and elimination of serious systematic errors played an important role. “Eye-and-Ear” observers had their personal errors which even changed with the years for the same person, occasionally even during tiresome long watches in a single night. Further sources of errors include: None-reversible instruments, zenith discontinuities, magnitude equations, possible changes of flexure, pivot errors and their variations, and unsufficient knowledge of the polar motion in old catalogues. Many of these questions were investigated and described in extended introductions to observational catalogues but in some cases such problems were only incompletely explained. Reference stars for the Astrographic Catalogues were observed on various “fundamental system” if fundamental at all.

An exhibits entitled “La mesure du ciel - De la plaque photographique aux techniques spatiales” was held at the Observatoire de Paris in association with the Symposium 133, on the occasion of the centenary of the international enterprise which was named “Carte du Ciel” in 1887. Under the exception of some modern pieces such as maquettes of Ariane, of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, of the Hipparcos Satellite, all other elements on display were from the resources of the Observatory. These case and some others, among the most recent ones, are analysed in view of studying the circumstances which allowed the objects and documents from the past to be still in our hands. The conditions through which they are still known and in existence are also reviewed. Based on such informations, some of the related problems are examined. In order to contribute to their solution, proposals could be made to the IAU Commission 41, in view of a study at the level of the International Astronomical Union. The author will be pleased to convey preliminary proposals to Commission 41.

Important research in astronomy and many star catalogues have been published in observatory publications during the last century and a half. Many of these older volumes are now in poor condition and conservation experts estimate they will not survive another 100 years if action is not taken. This paper describes a proposed project to preserve these volumes using optical disk technology.

Among other items, the Bessel/Struve correspondence reflects the competition between the two astronomers in deriving a value of a stellar parallax significantly differing from zero. This paper summarizes the letters written between 1837 and 1840.