Alternate Name
Born Resterhave, (Niedersachsen, Germany), 8 January 1587
Died 19 March 1616
Johann Fabricius was one of the first astronomers to observe sunspots with a telescope, and the first to publish an account of his observations.
Fabricius was the eldest son among the seven children of famed astronomer, astrologer, and Lutheran Pastor David Fabricius . Johann first studied medicine, mathematics, and astronomy at the University of Helmstedt in 1605, and then enrolled at Wittenberg University the following year. In December 1609 he moved on to Leiden University, where he matriculated as a student of medicine, but was eventually awarded a Magister Philosophiae degree in September 1611.
While in Leiden, sometime near the end of 1610, Fabricius acquired one or more telescopes, which he brought home to his father’s house in Osteel. Already well aware of the astronomical potential of the telescope from Galileo Galilei ’s Sidereus Nuncius, the father-and-son team began...
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Selected References
Berthold, G. (1894). Der Magister Johann Fabricius und die Sonnenflecken. Leipzig: Verlag von Veit and Co. (This remains the standard reference on Johann Fabricius.)
Hufbauer, Karl (1991). Exploring the Sun: Solar Science since Galileo. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Mitchell, Walter M. (1916). “The History of the Discovery of the Solar Spots: Johann Fabricius.” Popular Astronomy 24: 153–162. (This offers an unabridged English translation of the portion of Johann Fabricius’ Narratio describing his sunspot observations and related conclusions, from which the above extract is taken verbatim.)
Rüdiger, G. (1989). Differential Rotation and Stellar Convection. New York: Gordon and Breach.
Wattenberg, Diedrich (1964). David Fabricius: Der Astronomen Ostfieslands. Berlin-Treptow: Archenhold-Sternwarte.
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Charbonneau, P. (2014). Fabricius, Johann. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_433
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