Piazzi, Giuseppe (1746–1826)
Italian astronomer, born in Ponte di Valtellina, who became a Theatine monk,
professor of theology in Rome (1779), and professor of mathematics at the
Academy of Palermo (1780). He set up an observatory at Palermo in 1789,
published a star catalogue (in 1803, revised in 1814) showing the positions
of 7,646 stars, and discovered and named the first (and largest) asteroid,
Ceres. Although he was able to make only three
observations of Ceres, Carl Gauss had recently
developed a mathematical technique that allowed the orbit to be calculated.
Piazzi also discovered that the star 61 Cygni
has a large proper motion, which led Bessel to choose it as the object of
his parallax studies. The thousandth asteroid
to be found was named after him.
Related category
• ASTRONOMERS
AND ASTROPHYSICISTS
Also on this site:
Encyclopedia
of Alternative Energy & Sustainable Living
Encyclopedia
of History
BACK TO TOP
|
