Giovanni Battista Donati

Giambattista Donati ( Giovanni Battista Donati also; born December 16, 1826 in Pisa, † September 19, 1873 in Florence ) was an Italian astronomer.

Donati began after his studies at the University of Pisa his scientific career in 1852 as a practical astronomer at the observatory in Florence under the guidance of Giovanni Battista Amici, whose successor he was in 1864. Donati discovered 1854-1864 six comets, including in 1858 named after him Donati 's Comet ( designated C/1858 L1), who developed a reaching over half the sky next to the tail and has been from 1811, the brightest of the 19th century. He observed the total solar eclipse of 1860 in Spain.

He led the government to build a new observatory on the hill of Arcetri in Florence until 1872 1860 (see Arcetri Observatory ).

Donati dealt with the twinkle of the stars, with the irregular refraction, with the stellar spectra and the theory of the aurora.

Giambattista Donati died on September 19, 1873 a plague.

Named after him are the lunar crater Donati Comet Donati and the asteroid ( 16682 ) Donati.