A Scheme of the Solar System with the Orbits of the Planets and Comets belonging thereto, Described from Dr Halley's accurate Table of Comets Philosoph. Transact no. 297. Founded on Sr. Isaac Newton's wonderful discoveries.

Important, separately issued, celestial chart of the solar system, first prepared by William Whiston in 1712 and published by John Senex in London. The map was most likely designed to accompany Whiston’s public lectures, showing the orbits of all the known comets as included in Newtonian astronomy.
The broadside map illustrates the orbits of the comets known to Edmund Halley and Whiston at the beginning of the 18th Century, based upon Newton's famous model. Each comet is illustrated by its orbit with information about its known appearances, distances from the sun, etc.. A number of Newton's teachings are annotated within the printed image and additional information appears outside the solar hemisphere.

The map was first prepared by Whiston in 1712. As noted by Whiston in his Memoirs (p. 191); "About the same year, 1712, I published A Scheme of the Solar System, with the orbits of 21 comets 5 in a large meet of paper, engraved on copper, by Mr. Senex. Price 2 s. 6 d. Which Scheme has been of great reputation and advantage among the curious ever since".

Whiston’s “A New Theory of the Earth from its Original to the Consummation of All Things” (1696), articulated Whiston's belief that the global flood of Noah had been caused by a comet, a position which won him praise from Newton. Whiston and Halley were both advocates for the periodicity of comets, although Whiston also believed that comets were responsible for past catastrophes in earth's history. Whiston was one of the few to realize the full significance of Halley’s work in the period before 1758 when the 1682 comet reappeared as predicted.

The present edition includes John Senex's "St. Dunstan's address" at the bottom and notes that the planets are shown as they would appear in December 1720, suggesting that this edition was engraved in or before 1720.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642 –1726) was an English physicist and mathematician who is widely recognized as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution. Newton's "Principia" formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, which dominated scientists' view of the physical universe for the next three centuries.

Halley's Comet is a short-period comet visible from earth every 75–76 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is clearly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and the only naked-eye comet that might appear twice in a human lifetime. The comet's periodicity was first determined in 1705 by English astronomer Edmond Halley (1656 – 1742) after whom it is now named.

John Senex (1678-1740) was an English cartographer, engraver and explorer He was also an astrologer, geologist and geographer to Queen Anne of Great Britain, editor and seller of antique maps.