Stuttgart, Wilhelm Nitzschke, no date [but probably 1853]. Folio-sized portfolio with one text leaf; and with 12 engraved and hand-coloured cardboard plates [29.6 x 23.8 cm], some with cut-outs covered by different coloured sheets of transparent paper to let light shine through. Original blind-tooled boards with gilt title on the front board; dark green cloth ties. Yellow endpapers.

Rare celestial atlas explaining the seasons on earth, the phases of the moon, the movement of comets and their tails, and other heavenly objects and events visible with the naked eye or a small telescope. The earth is still shown without the Antarctic continent. The twelve plates depict the following: I. Die Central Sonne (an early map of the Milky Way galaxy); II. Himmels-Karte; III. Darstellung des Sonnensystems (with the planet orbits, and Halley's comet); IV. Vergleichende Darstellung der Grosse der Planeten (and the bigger moons); V. Die Sonne und verschiedene Erscheinungen derselben; VI. Der Mond durch das Fernrohr gesehen; VII. Transparente Darstellung der Mondsphasen; VIII. Finsternisse, and: Die ansicht von Ebbe & Fluth; IX. Ansicht von den Jahreszeiten; X. Die Erde und Ihre Atmosphäre (the earth's crust shown as solid, with concentric rings); XI. Kometen und Aerolithen; XII. Abbildungen der Meterologie die verschiedenen erscheinungen der Atmosphare Darstellend (in b/w). Tipped in on the 12th plate verso is an ' Erkärung der meteorologische Erscheinungen'. Spine of portfolio sunned, front board with some pale stains, otherwise a very good, clean copy.