Johann Goldsmid, better known by his Latinized name Johann(es) Fabricius (8 January 1587 – 19 March 1616), eldest son of David Fabricius (1564–1617), was a Frisian

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

and a modern era discoverer of

sunspot Sunspots are temporary spots on the Sun's surface that are darker than the surrounding area. They are one of the most recognizable Solar phenomena and despite the fact that they are mostly visible in the solar photosphere they usually aff ...

s in 1611, preceded by

Thomas Harriot Thomas Harriot (; – 2 July 1621), also spelled Harriott, Hariot or Heriot, was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer and translator to whom the theory of refraction is attributed. Thomas Harriot was also recognized for his con ...

and followed by

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

.Based on text in main reference.

Biography

Johannes was born in Resterhafe ( East Friesland). He studied at the University of Helmstedt, Wittenberg University and graduated from

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

in 1611. He returned from university in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

with telescopes that he and his father turned on the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

. Despite the difficulties of observing the Sun directly with a telescope, they noted the existence of

s, one of the first confirmed instance of such observations telescopically; sunspots had first been identified without telescopes in ancient China and Greece. Johannes first observed a sunspot on February 27, 1611; in

Wittenberg Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is the fourth-largest town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, in the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. It is situated on the River Elbe, north of Leipzig and south-west of the reunified German ...

in that year he published the results of his observations in his 22-page pamphlet ''De Maculis in Sole observatis....''. It was the first publication on the topic of sunspots. The pair soon used

camera obscura A camera obscura (; ) is the natural phenomenon in which the rays of light passing through a aperture, small hole into a dark space form an image where they strike a surface, resulting in an inverted (upside down) and reversed (left to right) ...

telescopy so as to save their eyes and get a better view of the solar disk, and observed that the spots moved. They would appear on the eastern edge of the disk, steadily move to the western edge, disappear, then reappear at the east again after the same amount of time that it had taken for it to cross the disk in the first place.Wilfried Schroeder has published the paper by Fabricius on the discovery of sunspots in 1611 in: Wilfried Schroeder, ''The Discovery of Sunspots'', Bremen 2009. He is also mentioned in

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

's 1865 novel ''

From the Earth to the Moon ''From the Earth to the Moon: A Direct Route in 97 Hours, 20 Minutes'' () is an 1865 novel by Jules Verne. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil War society of weapons enthusiasts, and their attempts to build an en ...

'' as someone who claimed to have seen lunar inhabitants through his telescope, though that particular fact is merely part of Verne's fiction. The large () Fabricius crater, on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

's southern hemisphere, is named after his father, David Fabricius. He died in Marienhafe, at the age of 29.

Legacy

In 1895, a monument was erected to his memory in the churchyard at Osteel, where his father had been

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

from 1603 until 1616.

Work

*Joh. Fabricii Phrysii ''De Maculis in Sole observatis, et apparente earum cum Sole conversione, Narratio, etc. Witebergae, Anno M.DC.XI.'' (year 1611).

Notes

References

*Gerhard Berthold: ''Der Magister Johann Fabricius und die Sonnenflecken, nebst einem Excurs über David Fabricius'' (Magister Johann Fabricius and Sunspots, together with a Digression on David Fabricius), Leipzig, 1894. *L. Häpke: "Fabricius und die Entdeckung der Sonnenflecken" ("Fabricius and the Discovery of Sunspots") in: ''Abhandlungen des naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins zu Bremen'', 10, 1888, pp. 249–272. *Bernhard Bunte: "Über Johannes Fabricus, den Entdecker der Sonnenflecken" ("On Johannes Fabricius, the Discoverer of Sunspots") in: ''Jahrbuch der Ges. für bildende Kunst und vaterländ. Altertümer zu Emden'', 9, H. 1, 1890, pp. 59–77. *Diedrich Wattenberg: ''David Fabricius. Der Astronom Ostfrieslands'' (David Fabricius. Astronomer of East Friesland), Berlin 1964. *Fritz Krafft: in Walther Killy's ''Literaturlexikon: Autoren und Werke deutscher Sprache'' (Literature-Lexicon: Authors and Words of German Language), 15 volumes, Gütersloh; München: Bertelsmann-Lexikon-Verl. 1988-1991 (CD-ROM Berlin 1998 ), Vol. 3. *Wilfried Schroeder, ''The Discovery of Sunspots,'' Bremen 2009 * *

External links

The Galileo Project
— biography of David and Johannes Fabricius.
Entry in the biographical encyclopedia of East Frisia (German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fabricius, Johannes 1587 births 1616 deaths East Frisians Frisian scientists 17th-century German astronomers Leiden University alumni People from Aurich (district)