![[Cellarius]](cellarius.gif)
Cellarius, unknown to the history of astronomy, produced the most elaborate and famous celestial atlas of the 17th century - the Atlas Coelestis, 1660. It contained many imaginatively designed plates showing the classical and Christianised heavens, the Ptolemaic planetary system, where the earth is the centre of the solar system, and Copernican view, where the sun is the centre.
This plate presents a novel view of the earth, the Pacific and Antarctic regions, as if seen through the starry sphere from a deep point in space. The image is ingenious, but its practical use for astronomers is highly doubtful.
From The British Library's Online Information Server