John Flamsteed (1646-1719) was born at Denby, near Derby, on 19 August 1646. He attended the free school at Derby until the age of fifteen, but was unable to attend university at that time due to ill health. He turned instead to private study, and having developed an interest in astronomy began systematic astronomical observations. In 1670 he was admitted to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he made the acquaintance of Isaac Newton, and was awarded his M.A. (1674).

Flamsteed was asked to assist a committee examining astronomical methods of finding longitude at sea. Having argued the case for more accurate observations and a new star catalogue, he was appointed in 1675 to the new position of 'Astronomical Observator', known subsequently as the Astronomer Royal, in order to carry out this work. He took up permanent residence at the new observatory at Greenwich Park the following year, and began regular observations with the sextant in September. He employed a variety of assistants and calculators, and with the available instruments was able to improve on contemporary standards of accuracy in his tables and charts. The first volume of Flamsteed's catalogue and observations was published in 1707, but further publications were delayed while he worked on his star catalogue and papers. As a result of this delay, he became embroiled in a dispute with Isaac Newton and Edmond Halley, who published an imperfect edition of his later observations without his consent in 1712.

As Astronomer Royal, Flamsteed took part in the discussion of contemporary issues such as the detection of stellar parallax, refraction, cometary motion, the unequal motions of Sun, Moon and planets, and matters in mathematics and optics. He corresponded with many of the leading figures of the day, such as James Gregory, Edmond Halley, Johannes Hevelius and Giovanni Domenico Cassini, as well as with Newton, who used his observations in writing his 'Principia' (1687).

Flamsteed was ordained in 1675, and presented to the living of Burstow, in Surrey, in 1684. In 1677 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He died at the Greenwich Observatory on 31 December 1719, and was buried at Burstow. The authorised version of his observations was eventually completed by his assistant Joseph Crosthwait, and published in 1725 as the three-volume 'Historia Coelestis Britannica'. The 'Atlas Coelestis' followed in 1729.