Giambattista Donati

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Giambattista Donati

Giambattista Donati (also Giovanni Battista Donati ; born December 16, 1826 in Pisa , † September 19, 1873 in Florence ) was an Italian astronomer .

After studying at the University of Pisa, Donati began his scientific career in 1852 as a practical astronomer at the observatory in Florence ( La Specola ) under the direction of Giovanni Battista Amicis , whose successor he was in 1859. Donati discovered six comets between 1854 and 1864 , including the large Donatian comet (C / 1858 L1) named after him in 1858, which developed a tail reaching halfway across the sky and next to that of 1811 was the brightest of the 19th century. He observed the total solar eclipse in Spain in 1860 .

Since the observation possibilities in the inner-city observatory in Florence continued to decrease due to increasing light pollution , he prompted the government to build the Arcetri observatory between 1860 and 1872 near the last residence of Galileo Galilei on the hill of Arcetri near Florence.

Donati dealt with the twinkling of the fixed stars, with the irregular refraction of rays, with the star spectra and with the theory of the aurora borealis .

Giambattista Donati died of an epidemic on September 19, 1873.

The lunar crater Donati , the comet Donati and the asteroid (16682) Donati are named after him.

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personal data
SURNAME Donati, Giambattista
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Donati, Giovanni Battista
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH December 16, 1826
PLACE OF BIRTH Pisa
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1873
Place of death Florence