Born Faenza (Emilia-Romagna), Italy, 20 May 1884
Died Italy, 6 January 1967
Originally an Italian postal worker, Giovanni Lacchini became a professional astronomer when a special position was legislated just for him. Lacchini’s status was due to his enthusiasm for variable stars: He made observations of variables (53,000+) from locations all over Italy – even from moving trains between stations! Lacchini’s skill was such that he could estimate the brightness of a star visually to a tenth of a magnitude, using only one comparison star. He was the first international member of the American Association of Variable Star Observers [AAVSO] and was elected vice president of that organization.
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Favero, Giancarlo and Sandro Baroni (1988). “Giovanni Battista Lacchini: An Amateur Astronomer from Italy.” In Stargazers: The Contributions of Amateurs to Astronomy, edited by S. Dunlop and M. Gerbaldi, pp. 44–45. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
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Hockey, T. (2014). Lacchini, Giovanni Battista. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_810
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