Johan Hevelius (1611-87)

Johan [Jan] Hevelius (January 28, 1611 - January 28, 1687)

Johan (or Jan, or Johannes) Hevel (or Hevelke, Hewel, Hewelcke, Höwelcke; latinized Hevelius) was living in Dantzig as a wealthy brewer and city councillor. He built his observatory "Sternenburg" on the upper floors of four houses, and installed a 130-foot focal length air telescope. His contributions to astronomy include:

The determination of the solar rotation period with considerable acuracy from sunspot observations in 1642-1645,
detailed maps of the Moon published in 1647 in his Selenographia based on 10 years of observation, including diagrams of phases and first estimates of Lunar mountain heights,
observations of a number of comets. Published his Prodomus Cometicus in 1665, followed by Cometographia in 1668 with observations the comets of 1647, 1652, 1661, 1664, and 1665. Continued to observe later comets, including that of 1672, 1677, and 1682 (Comet Halley),
independent discovery (July 25, 1670) and observations of Nova 1670 Cygni; observations and naming of Mira,
observations for a new star catalog.

For the latter project, he obtained positions for 1564 stars. These were eventually published posthumously in 1690 by his second wife, Elizabeth Margarethe, in a catalog, Prodomus Astronomiae, and an atlas, Uranographia, which contained 54 fine plates. Both these works also contain the positions of 16 'nebulous stars'. Unfortunately, of these, only two (M31 and M44) are real deepsky objects, which did not prevent this collection to become famous and cause many astronomers to spend a lot of time to look for them without success, including Derham and Messier.

Hevelius is commemorated by the naming of Moon Crater Hevelius (2.2N, 67.6W, 115.0 km diameter, named 1935) as well as asteroid (5703) Hevelius, discovered November 15, 1931 by K. Reinmuth in Heidelberg, provisionally designated 1931 VS as well as 1931 XH, 1964 VU and 1989 VL from independent findings.

Links

Hevelius' 16 "Nebulosae" (Derham's extract from Prodomus Astronomiae)
Johann Hevelius: URANOGRAPHIA (1690). Celestial and Terrestrial Atlases collection at the The Astronomic Observatory of Brera of the University of Milano, Italy
Hevelius images from the Tycho Brahe exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford
Johannes Hevelius biography, Sun Education page, High Altitude Observatory
Vultus Uraniae: Jan Hevelius
Some Johannes Hevelcke (Hevelius) info, Yann Pothier
Johannes Hevelius Biography (Galileo Project)
Asteroid 5703 Hevelius (1931 VS) (NEO/JPL)

References

Kenneth Glyn Jones, 1968. The Search for the Nebulae -- II. Journal of the British Astronomical Association, Vol. 78, No. 5 (1968), p. 360-368. Section on Hevelius: p. 366. Reprinted in: The Search for the Nebulae. Chalfont St. Giles, 1975.
Kenneth Glyn Jones, 1991. Messier's Nebulae and Star Clusters. 2nd ed, Cambridge University Press, p. 325.

[SEDS] | [MAA] | [Home] | [History Home] | [Biographies]

Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
[contact]