Globe

A Globe – is a three-dimensional spherical scale model of the earth (terrestrial globe) or the sky (celestial globe).

A three dimensional terrestrial globe is the only way of representing areas of the earth without significant distortions or inaccuracies of shape, relative sizes or directions. Most globes do however, ignore the slight bulge at the equator or flattening of the poles in favour of the more perfect globe shape.

The discovery of the earth being a globe was established by Greek astronomy in the 3rd Century BCE, and probably the earliest terrestrial globe was produced by Crates of Mallus in Cilicia – which is now part of modern Turkey.
There are no globes surviving from Antiquity or the Middle Ages, although Strabo and Ptolemy had formulated detailed instructions in how to build them at the beginning of the Christian era. Early globes depicting the Old World were made by scholars from the Islamic world, with an example introduced to Beijing by Jamal ad-Din, a Persian astronomer in 1267.

The first known globe of modern times was made by Martin Behaim in 1492 with help from the painter Georg Glockendon. Behaim was a very well travelled German navigator, map maker and merchant working in Nuremberg.

Another early globe known as the Hunt-Lenox Globe was made circa. 1510 and is thought to be the source of the phrase ‘Here be dragons’ (Hic Sunt Dracones).

Celestial globes are models to show the position of stars in the sky. They don’t show the Sun, Moon or other planets as they change position in relation to the stars. There is a problem with celestial representations, since the position of the constellations is mapped from the perspective of the earth – which is within the sphere, whilst the viewer is actually looking at the representation from outside. This causes the constellations to be seen as a mirror image. For this reason, celestial globes are often produced in mirror image so the stars appear the right way round.