1-158-342 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Nevil Maskelyne, English astronomer, 1804. Maskelyne (1732-1811) was Astronomer Royal from 1765-1811. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1758. Maskelyne proposed a means of calculating longitude based on measuring lunar distances and publishing them in a form accessible to navigators, leading to him establishing the Nautical Almanack in 1766. In the background is Flamsteed House, the Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park.