Giovanni Battista Donati

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Giovanni Battista Donati (December 16, Pisa,Italy, 1826 – September 20, 1873,Florence, Italy) was an Italian astronomer.

Donati graduated at the university in his native city Pisa and afterwards he joined the staff of the Observatory of Florence in 1852 and was appointed director in 1864. Between 1854 and 1864 he discovered six new comets, including the spectacular Comet Donati (C/1858 L1), found in 1858. He also pioneered spectroscopy of comets to determine their physical composition, discovering that the spectrum changed when a comet approached the Sun and heating caused it to emit its own light rather than reflected sunlight. Donati died from bubonic plague.

Donati, Giovanni Battista (jōvän'nē bät-tēs'tä dōnä'tē) [key], 1826–73, Italian astronomer, b. Pisa. Serving as director of the Florence Observatory from 1864, he was a pioneer in the spectroscopic study of the stars and the sun. Donati was the first to obtain and analyze the spectrum of a comet, concluding that the composition of comets is, at least in part, gaseous. He discovered (1854–64) six new comets, among them Donati's comet, which he first saw on June 2, 1858.