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.

 
It is supposed that celestial globes did exist at the time of Eudoxos, too. They used to display figures of the mythological constellations without the individual stars. As usual at that time, the globe showed the night sky as seen from "outside" the outermost layer, i.e. the figures are mirrored to our view. A globe of comparison may be the Farnese Atlas (Image) at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, Italy. It is the upper part of the sculpture of the kneeling Atlas who labours under his weight because he had been sentenced by Zeus to hold up the sky. This globe is the oldest known representation of the celestial sphere and it illustrates 41 of the 48 constellations known in antiquity. According to the precession, the state of the Farnese Globe fits best to the years around 125 +/- 55 BC. Some earlier illustrations of single constellations exist on the ancient Egyptian tombs from the 15th century BC (planar pictures only). These were deployed for calendrical purposes.