Pietro Tacchini

Pietro Tacchini
University of Padova
Awards	Rumford Medal (1888) Janssen Medal (1892)
Scientific career
Institutions	Observatory of the Collegio Romano Central Office of Meteorology and Geodynamics

Pietro Tacchini (March 21, 1838 – March 24, 1905) was an Italian astronomer.

He was born and raised in

. He remained there until 1879, and focused most of his attention on observations of the Sun.

In 1865 he founded the specialist physical astronomy journal, Memorie della Società degli Spettroscopisti, and remained the editor until 1905. (This publication later became the Memorie della Società Astronomica Italiana in 1920.)

Tacchini established an observation network with other Italian astronomers to spectroscopically examine the sun at about the same time daily. He likewise organized an observatory in

across the sun.

In 1879 he was summoned to Rome where he succeeded Angelo Secchi at the Osservatorio del Collegio Romano. In 1881 he became head of the Ufficio Centrale di Meteorologia.

Due to his influence, the Bellini Observatory was completed on

without an eclipse. He also recommended the construction of the Catania Observatory in 1885.

In 1888 he was awarded the Rumford Medal and in 1892 the Janssen Medal for his work on solar spectroscopy.^[1][2]

The crater Tacchini on the Moon is named for him, as well as the asteroid 8006 Tacchini.

Further reading

• Riccó, A. (1905). "Pietro Tacchini". The Astrophysical Journal. 22: 1–4.
  doi:10.1086/141236
  .

References

External links

• History of the Palermo Observatory
• Portrait of Pietro Tacchini from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections