An extremely rare star atlas from the 18th century that is among the first to show the planet Uranus is to be auctioned next week. The Atlas Celeste, prepared by the astronomer John Bevis, is one of only 23 known examples surviving today, and is considered to be a better specimen even than the one held by the British Library. One of its most remarkable features is its depiction of a star in the constellation Sagittarius that is not visible today. Astronomers believe that this shows that Bevis had observed Uranus more than 40 years before the seventh planet was identified formally by Sir William Herschel in 1781.