APIAN, PETER (1495-1552), professor of mathematics and astronomy at the University of
Ingolstadt, was an exemplification of the Renaissance humanist. He is famous for his discovery that
the tails of comets are directed away from the sun.
BAYER, JOHANNES (1564-1617) Astronomer who first named stars by assigning them to
constellations and giving them Greek letters in magnitude classes. Bayer published Uranometria (a
detailed star chart/catalog) in 1603.
BEHAIM, MARTIN (1459-1507) Navigator and geographer whose Nürnberg Terrestrial Globe is
the earliest globe extant.
BESSEL, FRIEDRICH (1784-1846) took up his new post at the Observatory at Königsberg in 1810
while it was still under construction. He remained in Königsberg for the rest of his life. Astronomer
and mathematician who cataloged about 50,000 stars, mathematically predicted the existence of a
planet beyond Uranus, was the first person to see the "motion" of a star due to parallax (observing 61
Cygni), was the first person to calculate the distance to a star (observing 61 Cygni - 10.3 light-years
from Earth), realized that there were dark stars, and devised the famous Bessel function, a
mathematical function.
COPERNICUS, NICOLAUS (1473-1543) Ethnic German astronomer from Poland who developed
the revolutionary Copernican system, a model of the solar system in which all the planets orbit the
sun. His ideas overturned the old Ptolemaic System. His seminal work was De Revolutionibus
Orbium Coelestium ("On the Revolutions of the Celestial Orb"), published in 1543.
DOPPELMAYR, JOHANN (1671-1750) was a geographer, mathematician who wrote extensively
on astronomy, spherical trigonometry,geography, cartography, trigonometry, sundials and
mathematical instruments. He was also involved in the production of globes.
DÜRER ALBRECHT (1471-1528) Artist. Presented classical drawings with a detailed method for
the construction of sundials using compass and straightedge.
EINMART,GEORG CHRISTOPH (1638 - 1705) Engraver and astronomer who built a private
observatory where he worked with his daughter Maria Clara. Eimmart published, beside other works,
a lunar map and ‘Observationes circumjov.’ A crater on the moon is named Eimmart in his honor.
EINMART,MARIA CLARA (1676 - 1707) Daughter of G. C. Eimmart. An observer and
calculating astronomer who made 300 detailled drawings of the Moon and of the annular eclipse of
May 12,1706.She was wife of Johann Heinrich Mueller.
ENCKE, JOHANN. Discoverer of the Encke Division in 1837 which splits the A Ring, the outermost
of the major rings of Saturn.
FRAUNHOFER, JOSEPH (1787-1826) Physicist who first studied the Sun's spectra (the dark lines
are now called Fraunhofer lines). His work with the spectra and also with diffraction gratings was
seminal in the science of spectroscopy.
GALLE, GOTTFRIED (1812-1910) Astronomer who discovered the crepe ring of Saturn and was a
co-discoverer of Neptune in 1846.
GUTENBERG, BENO (1889 - 1960) Geophysicist who accurately determined the size of the core
of the Earth. Gutenberg discovered that the Earth has a low-velocity zone in the upper mantle; this
zone is now called the Gutenberg discontinuity.
HARSDöRFFER, GEORG PHILIPP (1607-1658) was a prominent example of a Baroque poet and
also a scientist who designed a delayed firing mechanism based on the sun, a 'noon canon' set off by
a burning glass at 12 o'clock. Athanasius Kircher designed a sundial which struck the hours. The
sun's rays are focused by a glass sphere and ignite gunpowder, which triggers hammers on bells at
various hours.
HARTMANN, JOHANNES F. (1865-1936) Astrophysicist who, in 1904, discovered clouds of
interstellar calcium gas and developed a theory about novas, studied the asteroid #433 (Eros) and
developed a method of testing telescope lenses, which is still named for him.
HELMHOLTZ, HERMANN VON (1821-1894) Astrophysicist who studied solar energy production
and star formation.
HEVELIUS, JOHANNES (1611-1687) Astronomer who published the first moon map. He also
published a celestial atlas introducing many constellations.
HOMANN, JOHANN. Former Dominican monk and celebrated cartographer of 18th century
Nürnburg. He produced maps and celestial charts (generally in atlases), and globes of high quality
both in their geographic accuracy and aesthetic appeal
KEPLER, JOHANNES (1571-1630) Mathematician who realized that the planets go around the sun
in elliptical orbits. He formulated what we now call "Kepler's Three Laws" of planetary motion that
mathematically describe the elliptical orbits of celestial objects. See elsewhere
KIRCHOFF, GUSTAV (1824-1887) Physicist who discovered that each element gave off a
characteristic color of light when heated to incandescence. When separated by a prism, the light for
each element had a specific pattern of wavelengths. Kirchoff, together with Bunsen, used his
techniques to discover two new elements, cesium (1860) and rubidium (1861). Kirchoff found that
when light shines through a gas, the gas absorbs some of the light, the same wavelengths of light that
it would emit when heated, and he applied his techniques to the Sun.
GEORG FRIEDRICH KORDENBUSCH (1731-1802)
LIPPERSHEY, HANS (1570?-1619) German-born Dutch lens maker who demonstrated the first
refracting telescope in 1608, made from two lenses; he applied for a patent for this optical refracting
telescope (using 2 lenses) in 1608, intending it for use as a military device.
MARIUS (Mayr) , SIMON (1570-1624) Astronomer and physician who studied with Kepler and
attended Galileo's lectures. He claimed to have discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter in 1610,
the same year that Galileo discovered them. He published the first German translation of the first six
books of Euclid's Elements. Marius independently rediscovered the "Nebula in the Girdle of
Andromeda" on December 15, 1612, and was the first to observe it with a telescope and the first to
mention the new star Andromeda nebula in print. In Mundus jovialis, Marius was the first to publish
tables of the motions of the satellites of Jupiter and more accurately than Galileo. He bestowed the
names that are still used for the satellites.
TOBIAS MAYER (1723--1762) Cartographer and astronomer whose theories of the moon's motion
resulted in three published versions of lunar tables.
MÜLLER, JOHANN (REGIOMONTANUS) see above
OLBERS, HEINRICH (1758-1840) Astronomer and physician who published Olbers' paradox (Why
is the sky dark at night? or Why doesn't starlight make the night sky bright?) (1823), determined that
Uranus is a planet, not a comet (1781), discovered Olbers's comet (1815), the asteroids #2 Pallas
(1802) and #4 Vesta (1807), and formulated a method for calculating comet orbits.
PEURACH (PEURBACH),GEORG (1423 - 1461) Austrian astronomer who published observations
as well as a textbook on trigonometric calculation. He also discovered the deviation of the compass.
RATDOLT, ERHARD (1442–1528) printed many scientific works. He printed the Kalendarium of
Regiomontanus in 1476. The Sphaera mundi which Ratdolt printed in 1482 serves as an excellent
example of the artistry of his printing. Ratdolt was the first printer to use colored astronomical
diagrams.
RHODIUS (1577-1633) Mathematician who served Tycho Brahe and was close friend of Kepler.
SCHÖENER, ANDREAS (1528-1590), the son of Johann Schöner who made the first celestial globe
of Early Modern times, was court mathematician to Landgraf Wilhelm IV (1534-1594) of Hesse,
praised by Tycho Brahe as the most important astronomer in Europe of that time. He published two
books on sundials
SCHRÖTER, JOHANN HEIRONYMUS (1745-1816) Amateur. A crater on the moon is named for
him.
SCHWABE, HEINRICH. Amateur astronomer discovered that sunspots appeared in an 11-year
cycle. Schwabe was a pharmacist who observed the sun daily and published his observations, "Solar
Observations" in 1843.
VON WURZELBAUER, JOHANN PHILIPP (1651-1725) Amateur. He published observations
about the great comet of 1680. After 1682, Wurzelbauer owned his own astronomical observatory
and instruments, and observed the transit of Mercury, solar eclipses, and worked out the
geographical latitude of his native city, Nürnberg. After 1683, he had withdrawn himself completely
from business life to dedicate himself to astronomy. Wurzelbauer crater, on the Moon, was named
after him.
WERNER, JOHANNES (1468-1522) was a pastor and mathematician in his native Nürnberg. He
improved the cross staff. In 1502, Werner, in collaboration with Johannes Stabius from Austria,
constructed the large sundial at the eastern choir of the Lorenz church in Nürnberg.
Some Noted German Astronomers
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