Astronomers and Cartographers

It still interests me how many of the world most important maps were made by astronomers. Starting from the world oldest map found in Lascaux Caves in France and date back to 16500 years that depicted the stars known today as the Summer Triangle (represented as the eyes of a bull, birdman, and a bird) and there is this relationship between looking up to the sky and looking at the earth from above both in terms of maps. It is no wonder-however I still wonder- that of the many maps produced in the Age of Discovery is the 1686 weather map by Britain's Royal Astronomer Edmond Halley. According to Peter Alec Hall in his chapter on 'Counter mapping and Globalism', Halley has established several conditions to position the map maker at the centre of the world starting from adopting the Mercator Projection to using to the use of a graticule in which London is the prime meridian. Alec argues that by the 19th century these establishments become 'facts'.