Also 7–8 (9) ourano-. (ad. Gr. οὐρανογραφία: see URANO-1 and -GRAPHY. Cf. F. (1762), uranographie, Sp. and Pg. uranografia.]
† 1. A description of heaven. Obs. rare.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, II. V. i. 189. I found the Canaan by him described no Geography, but Ouranography, no earthly truth, but mysticall prediction.
1710. B. Jenks (title), Ouranography; or, Heaven opened. The Substance of Cardinal Bellarmine’s Five Books concerning the Eternal Felicity of the Saints.
2. The science of describing or delineating the sidereal heavens; a description or delineation of the stars. Also transf.
α. 1675. Sherburne, Manilius’ Sphere, a ii. Constellations … are distinguished into prophane and Sacred Figures or Morphoses, according to the different Uranography of the Antient Ethnicks.
1699. Howe, Redeemer’s Dominion, Wks. 1724, II. 85. When our Lord is said to have ascended far above all Heavens,… whose Uranography [will suffice] to describe how far that is?
1715. trans. Gregory’s Astron., I. 310. From hence did he [sc. Hevelius] deduce his Uranography or Tables of all the Stars.
1833. Herschel, Astron., 159. So in uranography, any conspicuous star may be selected as an initial point.
1890. Science-Gossip, XXVI. 102/1. An Uranography, or brief description of the constellations visible in the Northern Hemisphere … illustrated by star maps.
β. 1684. in Birch, Hist. Royal Soc. (1757), IV. 272. The ingenious Mr. Hooke, in his animadversions on Hevelius’s ouranography.
1881. trans. Verne’s Fur Country, 17. He had rendered great services to ouranography.
Hence Uranographer, one who practises or studies uranography; Uranographic(al adjs., of or pertaining to uranography; Uranographist, = URANOGRAPHER.
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, II. xi. 316. He is as great as the Greatest *Uranographer can make him.
1861. G. F. Chambers, Astron., 313. Many of the above smaller constellations are … rejected by modern uranographers.
1715. trans. Gregory’s Astron., I. 310. These *Uranographic Schemes of the Constellations are delineated in Plano.
1855. Tallis’s Crystal Palace, II. 245. Detouche and Houdin (France) exhibited a uranographic apparatus.
1882. R. Brown, Law Kosmic Order, 52. A remarkable conical black Babylonian Stone…, which, though not strictly zodiacal, is certainly uranographic in character.
1833. Herschel, Astron., 179. The *uranographical effect of aberration.
1844. N. Brit. Rev., I. 394. His whole stores of ouranographical and astronomical knowledge.
1861. G. F. Chambers, Astron., 273. The determination of the exact uranographical position of a star.
1731. Bailey (vol. II.), *Ouranographist,… an astronomer, or one who describes the heavens.
1812. Southey, Omniana, II. 142. The great Swedish Ouranographist [sc. Swedenborg], whose discoveries were not always confined to heaven.
