This chart is the ninth plate from Popular Astronomy, or Description of the Celestial Bodies, published in 1879. It is based on James Reynolds and John Emslie’s Astronomical Diagrams, first published in London in 1846. Beyond its strikingly colorful composition, the chart offers a glimpse into the history of astronomy through the use of now-obsolete units of measurement, such as the league (4,000 m) and the myriametre (10,000 m). It also features the zodiac, a system developed in Babylonia in the 5th century BCE. Its twelve divisions bear only a distant relationship to the constellations after which they are named and have long since fallen outside the realm of scientific astronomy.