Jan Heweliusz

Jan Heweliusz was born in a wealthy German-speaking Lutheran family of brewers in Gdańsk, Poland. He studied at the Gdańsk Gymnasium and the University of Leiden, where he developed an interest in astronomy and mathematics. He travelled across Europe and met many prominent scientists, such as Pierre Gassendi, Athanasius Kircher, and the Huygens family. He returned to Gdańsk in 1634 and married Katharine Rebeschke, who inherited two adjacent houses. He built an observatory on the roofs of his houses, where he made many astronomical observations and discoveries. He published several works on astronomy, such as Selenographia, the first detailed map of the Moon, and Firmamentum Sobiescianum, where he described ten new constellations. He also invented the polemoscope, a precursor of the periscope. He was a member of the Royal Society and corresponded with many other astronomers, such as Johannes Kepler, Christiaan Huygens, and Edmond Halley. He was also involved in the municipal administration of Gdańsk, serving as a town councillor and a mayor. He married Elisabeth Hevelius after the death of his first wife in 1662. He died on his 76th birthday in 1687, after a fever. He was buried in St. Catherine's Church in Gdańsk. He is regarded as one of the founders of lunar topography and a pioneer of telescopic astronomy.