Johan [Jan] Hevelius (1611-87)
Johan (or Jan, or Johannes) Hevel (or Hevelke; latinized Hevelius) was
living in Dantzig as a wealthy brewer and city councillor. He built his
observatory "Sternenburg" on the upper floors of four houses, and
installed a 130-foot focal length air telescope. His contributions to astronomy
include:
- The determination of the solar rotation period with considerable
acuracy from sunspot observations in 1642-1645,
- detailed maps of the Moon published in 1647 in his
Selenographia based on 10 years of observation, including diagrams
of phases and first estimates of Lunar mountain heights,
- observations of a number of comets. Published his Prodomus Cometicus
in 1665, followed by Cometographia in 1668 with observations the
comets of 1647, 1652, 1661, 1664, and 1665. Continued to observe later comets,
including that of 1672, 1677, and 1682 (Comet Halley),
- independent discovery (July 25, 1670) and observations of
Nova 1670
Cygni; observations and naming of
Mira,
- observations for a new star catalog.
For the latter project, he obtained positions for 1564 stars. These were
eventually published posthumously in 1690 by his second wife, Elizabeth
Margarethe, in a catalogue, Prodomus Astronomiae, and an atlas,
Uranographia, which contained 54 fine plates. Both these works also
contain the positions of 16 'nebulous stars'. Unfortunately, of these, only two
(M31 and M44)
are real deepsky objects, which did not prevent this collection to become
famous and cause many astronomers to spend a lot of time to look for them
without success, including Derham and
Messier.
Hevelius' 16 "Nebulosae"
(Derham's extract from Prodomus Astronomiae)
Johann Hevelius: URANOGRAPHIA (1690) (Celestial and Terrestrial Atlases
collection at the The Astronomic Observatory of Brera of the University of
Milano, Italy)
Johannes Hevelius biography and references, Galileo Project at Rice
University
Hevelius images
from the Tycho Brahe exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science,
Oxford
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