HEVELIUS [HEVEL or H6WELCKE], JOHANN (16111687)

This article appears in Volume V13, Page 417 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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HEVELIUS [HEVEL or H6WELCKE], JOHANN (16111687) , German astronomer, was born at Danzig on the 28th of January 1611. He studied jurisprudence at Leiden in 1630; travelled in England and France; and in 1634 settled in his native town as a brewer and town councillor. From 1639 his

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

interest

INTEREST

became centred in astronomy, though he took, throughout his life, a leading part in municipal affairs. In 1641 he built an observatory in his

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

, provided with a splendid instrumental outfit, including ultimately a tubeless telescope of 150 ft. focal length, constructed by himself. It was visited, on the 29th of January 166o, by John II. and Maria Gonzaga, king and queen of Poland. Hevelius made observations of sunspots, 16421645, devoted four years to charting the lunar surface, discovered the moon's libration in longitude, and published his results in Selenographia (1647), a

work

WORK

which entitles him to be called the founder of lunar topography. He discovered four comets in the several years 1652, 1661, 1672 and 1677, and suggested the revolution of such bodies in parabolic tracks round the sun. On the 26th of September 1679, his observatory,

instruments

INSTRUMENTS

and books were maliciously destroyed by fire, the catastrophe being described in the preface to his Annus climactericus (1685). He promptly repaired the damage, so far as to enable him to observe the

great

GREAT

comet of December 168o; but his health suffered from the shock, and he died on the 28th of January 1687, Among his works were: Prodromus cometicus (1665); Cometographia (1668); Machin coelestis (first part, 1673), containing a description of his

instruments

INSTRUMENTS

; the second part (1679) is extremely rare, nearly the whole issue having perished in the conflagration of 1679. The observations made by Hevelius on the variable

star

STAR

named by him " Mira " are included in Annus climactericus. His catalogue of 1564 stars appeared posthumously in Prodromus aslronomiae (169o). Its value was much impaired by his preference of the antique " pinnules " to telescopic sights on quadrants. This led to an acrimonious
controversy with Robert Hooke. In an Atlas of 56 sheets, corresponding to his catalogue, and entitled Firmament um Sobiescianum (1690), he delineated seven new constellations, still in use. Hevelius had his book printed in his own

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

, at lavish expense, and himself not only designed but engraved many of the plates.
See J. H.

Westphal

WESTPHAL, RUDOLF (1826—1892)

, Leben, Studien, and Schriften des Astronomen Johann Hevelius (1820); C. B. Lengnich, Anekdoten and Nachrichten (178o); Allgemeine deutsche Biographic (C. Bruhns) ; J. B. J.

Delambre

DELAMBRE, JEAN BAPTISTE JOSEPH (1749-1822)

, Histoire de l'astronomie moderne, ii. 471; J. F. Weidler, Historia astronomiae, p. 486; F. Baily's edition of the Catalogue of Hevelius, Memoirs Roy. Astr. Society, xiii. (1843) ; R. Wolf, Geschichte der Astronomic, p. 396; J. C. Poggendorff, Biog.-lit. Handworterbuch. For an account of the epistolary remains of Hevelius, see C. G. Hecker, Monatl. Correspondenz, viii. 3o; also Asir. Nachrichten, vols. xxiii., xxiv. (A. M. C.)

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