The mid-eighteenth- to mid-nineteenth centuries were a golden age for exploring the deep southern skies. Up to then, most of the observations had been relegated largely to the naked eye, such as the mythological musings of skywatchers from native lands below the equator, itinerant traders, and northern explorers making occasional seafaring voyages to the south seas. For instance, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are named in honor of the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, who described them in 1519 (though he also was not the first to record them). And Dutch navigators Pieter Dirksz Keyser and Fredrick de Houtman created between 1595 and 1597 some of the southern constellations (such as Pavo the Peacock) we still enjoy today.

The first systematic telescopic survey of the deep southern sky, however, did not occur until Edmond Halley (1656–1742) sailed from England to the South Atlantic island of St. Helena (the southernmost territory under England’s flag) in 1676 aboard a Brirish naval vessel and set up instruments on what would later be named Halley’s Mount – primarily to study magnetic variations and wind systems, but also to observe far-southern stars invisible from Europe and never before measured by a well-equipped astronomer. His astronomical instruments included a great sextant fitted with telescopic sights (to measure angular distances between the stars), a 24-foot refractor and several smaller ones, a pendulum clock, and a 2-foot quadrant.