Elisabeth Hevelius

Elisabetha Catherina Koopmann Hevelius (* 1647, † 1693) was an astronomer. She was the second wife of the brewer, astronomers, councilman and mayor of Gdansk, Johannes Hevelius.

Elisabetha Koopman was born into a wealthy merchant family in the Hanseatic city of Gdansk. She was a daughter of the Danzig merchant Nicholas Koopman and his wife Johanna Menigs from Amsterdam.

Your marriage to Hevelius in 1663 allowed her to perceive their own interests in astronomy. The two operated an observatory and compiled the Prodromus astronomiae, a catalog of the sky positions of 1564 stars. After her husband's death in 1687 Elizabeth presented the catalog finished and published it year 1690.

It is considered the first woman whose achievements were recognized in astronomy. It is also called "Mother of the Moon Charts".