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Image © National Museums Scotland
View full screenBronze planisphere with two magnetic needles in a raised border, the centre representing a portion of the sidereal heavens, made in Japan, probably late 17th century
T.1878.37
Unknown
Japan, East Asia
Late 17th century
Bronze with two magnetic needles
China, East Asia
Korea, East Asia
Earth in Space (29 Jul 2011)
National Museum of Scotland
Stephenson, F.R., 'Chinese and Korean Star Maps and Catalogs' and Miyajima, K., 'Japanese Celestial Cartography before the Meiji Period' in Harley, J.B. and Woodward, David., The History of Cartography, Volume Two, Book Two: Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1994
Knobel, E.B., 'On a Chinese Planisphere' in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, No 69 (1909), pp 435-45
Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol 3, with Wang Ling, Mathematics and the Sciences of Heaven and Earth, London, 1959, pp 279, 282
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space (early star gazing)