Johannes Hevelius - Works

Astronomer, born in Gdansk, N Poland. He studied at Leyden, built his own observatory in Gda?sk, and made his own instruments. He catalogued 1564 stars in Prodromus Astronomiae (1690), discovered four comets, and was one of the first to observe the transit of Mercury. He gave names to many lunar features in his atlas of the Moon, Selenographia (1647).

Johannes Hevelius (Latin), also called Johann Hewelke, Johannes Höwelcke or Johannes Hewel (in German), or Jan Heweliusz (in Polish), (born January 28, 1611 – died January 28, 1687), was a councillor and mayor in Danzig (Gdańsk).

Hevelius was born in Danzig in a time when the city was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The following year, Hevelius became a member of the beer brewing guild which he led from 1643 onwards.

Throughout his life, he took a leading part in municipal administration, becoming Ratsherr (town councillor) in 1651 and later Bürgermeister (mayor) of Danzig, but from 1639 onwards, his chief interest became centered in astronomy.

This private observatory was visited by Polish Queen Maria Gonzaga on 29 January 1660, and in 1678 by Polish King John III Sobieski.

Hevelius made observations of sunspots, 1642–1645, devoted four years to charting the lunar surface, discovered the Moon's libration in longitude, and published his results in Selenographia sive Lunae Descriptio (1647), a work which entitles him to be called the founder of lunar topography.

Four comets were discovered by him, in the years (1652, 1661 (probably the same as Ikeya-Zhang), 1672 and 1677.

Katharine, his first wife, died in 1662, and a year later Hevelius married Elisabeth Koopmann, the young daughter of a merchant.

His observatory, instruments and books were maliciously destroyed by fire on September 26, 1679.

In late 1683, as commemoration of the victory of the Christian forces led by King John III Sobieski in the battle of Vienna, he named a newly identified constellation Scutum Sobiescianum (shield of Sobieski).

Hevelius had his book printed in his own house, at lavish expense, and himself not only designed but engraved many of the printing plates.

Works

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Johannes Hevelius Historiola Mirae (1662), in which he named the periodic variable star Omicron Ceti "Mira", or "the Wonderful" Prodromus cometicus (1665) Cometographia (1668) Machina coelestis (first part, 1673), containing a description of his instruments; the second part (1679) is extremely rare, nearly the whole issue having perished in the conflagration of 1679 Annus climactericus (1685), describes the fire of 1679, and includes observations made by Hevelius on the variable star Mira Prodromus astronomiae (1690), his posthumously published catalogue of 1564 stars.