Johannes Fabricius
Johann Goldsmid,[1] better known by his Latinized name Johann(es) Fabricius (8 January 1587 – 19 March 1616),[2] eldest son of David Fabricius (1564–1617), was a Frisian/German astronomer and a discoverer of sunspots (in 1610), independently of Galileo Galilei.[3]
Biography
Johannes was born in
The pair soon used camera obscura telescopy so as to save their eyes and get a better view of the solar disk, and observed that the spots moved. They would appear on the eastern edge of the disk, steadily move to the western edge, disappear, then reappear at the east again after the same amount of time that it had taken for it to cross the disk in the first place.[7]
He is also mentioned in Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon as someone who claimed to have seen lunar inhabitants through his telescope, though that particular fact is merely part of Verne's fiction. The large (90-kilometre or 56-mile) Fabricius crater, on the Moon's southern hemisphere, is named after his father, David Fabricius.
He died in Marienhafe, at the age of 29.
Legacy
In 1895, a monument was erected to his memory in the churchyard at Osteel, where his father had been pastor from 1603 until 1616.
Work
- Joh. Fabricii Phrysii De Maculis in Sole observatis, et apparente earum cum Sole conversione, Narratio, etc. Witebergae, Anno M.DC.XI. (year 1611).
Notes
- ^ "Johann Fabricius (1587-1616)". hao.ucar.edu. High Altitude Observatory. Archived from the original on 2014-08-18. Retrieved 2014-08-25.
- ^ Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer, 2007, p. 353.
- ^ Based on text in main reference.
- ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
- ^ Christie, Thony (8 January 2011). "Spotting the spots". Retrieved 17 January 2011.
- ^ Willy Jahn (1959), "Fabricius, Johannes", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 4, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, p. 732
- ^ Wilfried Schroeder has published the paper by Fabricius on the discovery of sunspots in 1611 in: Wilfried Schroeder, The Discovery of Sunspots, Bremen 2009.
References
- Gerhard Berthold: Der Magister Johann Fabricius und die Sonnenflecken, nebst einem Excurs über David Fabricius (Magister Johann Fabricius and Sunspots, together with a Digression on David Fabricius), Leipzig, 1894.
- L. Häpke: "Fabricius und die Entdeckung der Sonnenflecken" ("Fabricius and the Discovery of Sunspots") in: Abhandlungen des naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins zu Bremen, 10, 1888, pp. 249–272.
- Bernhard Bunte: "Über Johannes Fabricus, den Entdecker der Sonnenflecken" ("On Johannes Fabricius, the Discoverer of Sunspots") in: Jahrbuch der Ges. für bildende Kunst und vaterländ. Altertümer zu Emden, 9, H. 1, 1890, pp. 59–77.
- Diedrich Wattenberg: David Fabricius. Der Astronom Ostfrieslands (David Fabricius. Astronomer of East Friesland), Berlin 1964.
- Fritz Krafft: in ISBN 3-932544-13-7), Vol. 3.
- Wilfried Schroeder, The Discovery of Sunspots, Bremen 2009
- Willy Jahn (1959), "Fabricius, Johannes", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 4, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, p. 732
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.)
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External links
- The Galileo Project — biography of David and Johannes Fabricius.
- Entry in the biographical encyclopedia of East Frisia (German)
- Celebrating 400 Years of Sunspot Observations.