A wide range of events, including competitions and workshops, are planned for the coming months. They will focus on various aspects of Heweliusz’s interests which, aside from astronomy, included mathematics, engineering and the art of brewing.
A live astronomical presentation of the night sky is scheduled for Saturday. The events are organised by the Hevelianum, one of the city’s cultural institutions.
Heweliusz was born in Gdańsk on 28 January 1611. He came from a German-speaking family of wealthy brewing merchants of Bohemian origin, but considered himself part of the Polish world.
After studying in the Netherlands he returned to Gdańsk and built a rooftop observatory. It was visited by Polish royalty and by the English astronomer Edmund Halley, who came as an emissary of the Royal Society in London of which Heweliusz became a member in 1664.
Known as the founder of lunar topography, Heweliusz compiled an atlas of the Moon and drew up a catalogue of over 1,500 stars. He also constructed several innovative astronomical instruments. His wife, Elżbieta Koopman, shared her husband’s interests in astronomy.
Heweliusz died in Gdańsk in 1687, on his 76th birthday, and was buried in the city’s St Catherine’s Church.
(mk/pk)