Elisabeth Hevelius
Elisabeth Catherina Koopmann Hevelius (in Polish also called Elżbieta Heweliusz) (1647–1693) was an astronomer. She was the second wife of fellow astronomer Johannes Hevelius.
Elisabeth Koopmann (or Kaufmann, German: "merchant") was, like Hevelius and his first wife, a member of a rich merchant family in the city of Danzig (Gdansk) located in Pomeranian Voivodeship of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and a member of the trade organisation called Hansa. Her parents were Nicholas and Joanna (née Mennings) Koopman.[2]
The marriage of the sixteen-year-old to fifty-two-year-old Hevelius in 1663[3] allowed her also to pursue her own interest in astronomy by helping him manage his observatory. They had a son, who died soon, and three daughters who survived.[4] Following his death in 1687, she completed and published Prodromus astronomiae (1690), their jointly compiled catalogue of 1,564 stars and their positions.
She is considered one of the first female astronomers, and called "the mother of moon charts". Her life was recently novelized as The Star Huntress (2006).
The minor planet 12625 Koopman is named in her honour, as is the crater Corpman on Venus.
Notes
- ↑ Bennet, Joseph (1984). Cavendish, ed. Billiards (6th ed.). London: T. de la Rue. pp. ii. OCLC 12788362. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
- ↑ Hockey, Thomas (2009). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
- ↑ Stories of Women Stargazers, Dora Musielak, March 30, 2009
- ↑ Gotthilf Löschin: Geschichte Danzigs von der ältesten bis zur neuesten Zeit: mit beständiger Rücksicht auf Cultur der Sitten, Wissenschaften, Künste, Gewerbe und Handelszweige, Volume 1, 1828
References
- Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey. "Hevelius, Elisabetha Koopman". In: Women in Science, The MIT Press, 1986, p. 99 ISBN 0-262-15031-X (Short encyclopedia article)
- Walz, E. 2006. The Star Huntress. Random House/Bertelsmann. ISBN 978-3-442-36523-4 (Historical novel)
External links
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