The Sky Atlas unveils some of the most beautiful maps and charts ever created during humankind’s quest to map the skies above us. This richly illustrated treasury showcases the finest examples of celestial cartographya glorious art often overlooked by modern map booksas well as medieval manuscripts, masterpiece paintings, ancient star catalogs, antique instruments, and other curiosities. This is the sky as it has never been presented before: the realm of stars and planets, but also of gods, devils, weather wizards, flying sailors, ancient aliens, mythological animals, and rampaging spirits. Packed with celestial maps, illustrations, and stories of places, people, and creatures that different cultures throughout history have observed or imagined in the heavens Readers are taken on a tour of star-obsessed cultures around the world, learning about Tibetan sky burials, star-covered Inuit dancing coats, Mongolian astral prophets and Sir William Herschel’s 1781 discovery of Uranus, the first planet to be found since antiquity.