Wil Tirion, an important Dutch uranographer, was born on the 19th of February in the year of 1943. The most important among the Works of Wil Tirion is Sky Atlas 2000.0. It is famous for its accuracy, beauty and usefulness to the astronomers. Willmann-Bell issued the second edition of Tirion’s most complete work as Uranometria 2000.0, which was published in 2001.
Wil Tirion has also studied many sky charts issued by other publications. He had been a graphic designer initially and later looked into cartography. In 1993, the International Astronomical Union honored Tirion by naming a minor asteroid (4648) after him. With his interest in astronomy he became one of the renowned Map Makers of Modern Era.
Wil Tirion started working on his first complete star atlas in 1977, when he was just 34 years old. This comprised five large maps, which included the celestial sphere to magnitude 6.5. It was first published in the Encyclopedia of Astronomy, which was edited by Colin Ronan. The British Astronomical Association had published his atlas separately in 1981 under the title of B.A.A. Star Charts 1950.0.
Wil Tirion has worked on a number of projects, which comprised stars of the eighth magnitude. Sky Atlas 2000.0 published by Sky Publishing Corporation and Cambridge University Press in 1981 got immense popularity worldwide. It had great improvements over existing atlases of the time. On 1st of September in the year of 1987 the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Weer en Sterrenkunde, which is a Dutch organization of weather and astronomy enthusiasts, awarded the Dr. J. van der Bilt Prize to Wil Tirion.