In 1784 Galiano met and worked with Alessandro Malaspina, with whom he would later journey to America. Both men were among a group of officers studying astronomy at the Royal Observatory in Cádiz under Admiral Vicente Tofiño. The association was brief, as Tofiño was called upon to create an atlas of the coast of Spain, and he chose Galiano to work on the project. Thus Galiano assisted Tofiño's great hydrographic study, which resulted in the "Atlas Maritímo de España", published in 1789. This experience was the basis of Galiano's expertise as a professional cartographer.