Johann Elert Bode

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Johann Elert Bode (January 19, 1747 – November 23, 1826) was a German astronomer known for his reformulation and popularization of the Titius-Bode law as well as his works to determine the orbit of Uranus, for which he also suggested the name. He is also credited with the discovery of Bode's Galaxy (M81).

Bode was the director of the Berlin Observatory, where he published the Uranographia in 1801, a celestial atlas that aimed both at scientific accuracy in showing the positions of stars and other astronomical objects, as well as the artistic interpretation of the stellar constellation figures. The Uranographia marks the climax of an epoch of artistic representation of the constellations. Later atlases showed fewer and fewer elaborated figures until they were no longer printed on such tables.

He also published an astronomical yearbook, another, small celestial atlas, intended for astronomical amateurs (Vorstellung der Gestirne), and an introductory book to the constellations and their tales, which had more than ten reprints.

Bode was born in Hamburg and died in Berlin aged 79, November 23, 1826.

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