Thomas Wright: An original theory or new hypothesis of the universe

Sometimes you stumble on images that are so cool you just want to share, this would be one of those.

Thomas Wright: An original theory or new hypothesis of the universe … London: 1750. Plate XXXI [m2v] represents ‘a partial View of Immensity, or … a finite View of Infinity’.

Thomas Wright (22 September 1711 – 25 February 1786) was an English astronomer, mathematician, instrument maker, architect and garden designer. He was the first to describe the shape of the Milky Way and speculate that faint nebulae were distant galaxies.