A monumental “Map of the Sky” published by the Institut Géographique National (IGN) in Paris in 1973, showing the major constellations as they appear in the sky and as they are visible in the northern and southern hemispheres. The map also indicates the stars visible to the naked eye for each month of the year along the ecliptic. The map uses stunning colors, such as a deep midnight blue background (a color choice that evokes the darkness of space and highlights the complex network of lines and constellations) to represent the night sky and was “designed for amateur astronomers or for those who wanted a map that was both decorative and comprehensive.”
The work unfolds against a deep midnight blue background, a color choice that evokes the darkness of deep space and highlights the complex network of lines and constellations.
The IGN was officially established on June 27, 1940, by decree of the Vichy government, but its roots run deep in French military history. The institute was created to replace the Service Géographique de l’Armée (SGA), founded in 1887. The transformation from a purely military body to a civilian public agency arose from the need to safeguard France’s valuable cartographic heritage and scientific equipment during the German occupation, preventing them from being requisitioned for military purposes.
With the end of World War II, the IGN was tasked with the monumental project of mapping the entire French territory and its overseas territories at a scale of 1:25,000 (the famous Carte de France), becoming a global pioneer in aerial photogrammetry. The IGN acquired its own fleet of aircraft (the famous, specially modified Boeing B-17s and later the Hurel-Dubois aircraft) to systematically photograph the territory from above, transforming topography from a slow, land-based discipline into a highly precise aerial science. The IGN also developed color reproduction and engraving techniques on stable plastic substrates that allowed for unprecedented print clarity (the same quality seen in the 1973 Carte du Ciel).
In the 1970s, the IGN was at the height of its international prestige, renowned for the quality of its engineers and its cartographic laboratories, capable of spanning the spectrum from terrestrial geodesy to thematic and astronomical cartography.
