ca. 360 BC: The Greek mathematician Eudoxos of Cnidus (408-355 BC) is considered to have constructed the first star chart. He named a number of conspicuous stars and compared their brightness. His work is not conserved, so our knowledge about that is obtained from secondary sources. One of these is the poem on astronomy by Aratus of Soli (ca. 315-240 BC). The poem, called Phaenomena ("Appearances"), describes the constellations and other celestial phenomena like rising and setting of stars as well as the weather lore. Today, Eudoxos is rather linked to the theoretical model of rotating celestial spheres centred on the Earth that were to explain the motion of the planets.

ca. AD 150: Ptolemy (ca. AD 90-160) was the author of several scientific treatises. The most important one is the Almagest ("The Great Treatise"), consisting of 13 books. There he had gathered the astronomical knowledge of his predecessors scattered throughout 800 years. The books VII and VIII contain a star catalogue of 1022 stars, which is an appropriated and supplemented version of Hipparchus' list. Ptolemy's astronomical models were accompanied by convenient tables, which could be used to compute the future or past positions of the planets. He also described the construction of a celestial globe (Book V, Ch. I). It consisted of a graduated circle inside which another could slide. As much as we know, Ptolemy built at least one by himself.

ca. 134 BC: The star catalogue appears close to the development of the graphical depiction of the sky. It is a list or tabulation of stars referred to simply by numbers. Timocharis (ca. 320-260 BC) and Aristillus (ca. 280 BC), both of Alexandria, are said to have created the first catalogue of the Western world. Over 150 years later, the Greek astronomer and mathematician Hipparchus of Nicaea (ca. 190-120 BC) would compile his own one. By comparison to Timocharis' catalogue, he discovered the precession of the equinoxes. Hipparchus' interest for the catalogue may have been inspired by the observation of a new bright star (supernova) that he did not notice before. He decided to plot a map and recorded 850 stars with entries of latitude and longitude relative to the ecliptic. The catalogue was lost during the Middle Ages, but his work was incorporated in the Almagest by Ptolemy. Of the 14 books by Hipparchus, the only survived work is a critical commentary on Aratus' Phaenomena which gives us an indirect link to Eudoxos.

ca. AD 400: The astrolabe is an astronomical instrument used for manifold applications. These include measurements of angles (e.g. culmination heights of stars), positions of celestial bodies, determination of time at a given latitude and vice-versa, and triangulation. Thus, it has been an essential tool for localisation during expeditions and for navigation. As a predecessor of the modern planisphere, it demonstrates the daily and annual motion of the sky. The astrolabe is made up of a main disk of brass and one or more hollow plates which are pivoted against each other. The main disk is engraved with lines that form important coordinate grids. The hollow plate is constructed for a specific latitude and shows the portion of the celestial sphere which is above the local horizon at a given time. Some astrolabes have a narrow rule or label which rotates over the upper disk. It is marked with a scale of declinations. The backside has another rule (Alhidade) in addition, which provides a bearing device to measure angles.

The armillary sphere exhibits a series of rings that shape a celestial globe. These circles form its skeleton with the different coordinate grids (equator, ecliptic, meridian, and their parallels) to model the motions in the sky. Effectively, it is a mixture between a celestial globe and a 3D-astrolabe. The armillary sphere is based on the geocentric view: the virtual observer namely the Earth is placed at its centre. An outside horizontal ring represents the horizon. The touching points of the ecliptic and the equator rings are the spring and autumn equinox, respectively. When replacing the Earth by the sun, it can also serve as a Copernican system.

1664:  A monumental artwork of a giant astronomical device is the Globe of Gottorp. It is a hollow ball of 3.1 meters in diameter and was built between 1654 and 1664 on request of Frederick III (1597-1659), Duke of Holstein-Gottorp in Northern Germany. The inside of the globe was artistically ornamented with the mythological figures of star constellations, while the outside exhibited the continents of the Earth. The globe could rotate once in 24 hours, probably driven by a water mill. A hatch gave access to the interior, where up to ten persons could take a seat. They witnessed the simulation of the moving starry sky alike in a planetarium. The globe was put in a so-called Globe House in the garden of the Duke's palace to amuse his guests.