Giuseppe Piazzi

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Giuseppe Piazzi

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Giuseppe Piazzi , 1746-1826, Italian astronomer, a Theatine priest from 1769. He became (1781) professor of mathematics at the Univ. of Palermo, supervised construction of a government observatory (opened 1791) at Palermo, and was its first director. He also established a government observatory at Naples (1817). He was the first to discover (Jan. 1, 1801) an asteroid and named it Ceres . In 1803 he published a catalog of the fixed stars, and in 1814 he enlarged it to include 7,646 stars. He wrote Lezioni elementari di astronomia (1817).

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Piazzi, Giuseppe

A Dictionary of Astronomy | 1997 | © A Dictionary of Astronomy 1997, originally published by Oxford University Press 1997. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Piazzi, Giuseppe (1746–1826)Italianastronomer and monk. In 1789 he acquired a high-quality transit instrument made by the English optician Jesse Ramsden (1735–1800). From accurate positional measurements made with it, he compiled a star catalogue at the Observatory of Palermo, and in the process discovered the first asteroid, Ceres, on 1801January1. Piazzi's proposed term ‘planetoid’ lost out to F. W.Herschel's suggestion of ‘asteroid’.

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Free Article Ceres descubierto.(descubrimiento del asteroide Ceres Ferdinandea por el astrónomo Giuseppe Piazzi)(Artículo breve)
Magazine article from: Contenido; 1/1/2006

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

Ceres descubierto.(descubrimiento del asteroide Ceres Ferdinandea por el astrónomo Giuseppe Piazzi)(Artículo breve)
Magazine article from: Contenido; 1/1/2006; 534 words ; 1801:1 de enero El astrnomo siciliano Giuseppe Piazzi descubre el primer asteroide, al que llam Ceres Ferdinandea en honor de la diosa romana de las plantas y el amor maternal y patrona...
A Rocky Bicentennial.(conference addresses asteroids)
Magazine article from: Science News; 7/28/2001; ; 700+ words ; ...nightfall on Jan. 1, 1801, that Giuseppe Piazzi pointed his state-of-the-art...observed an unfamiliar point of light. Piazzi thought the object might be a new...something better than a comet," Piazzi told a colleague a few weeks later...
Vagabonds in Space
Magazine article from: Natural History; 7/1/2004; ; 700+ words ; ...on that first day of 1801, the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, founder of the Observatory of Palermo, discovered...had led to the discovery of a new celestial object. Piazzi himself named it Ceres (as in "cereal"), for the...
Word of the week: asteroid
Newspaper article from: The Scotsman; 4/6/2002; ; 631 words ; ...relatively recent. On the first day of January 1801, a monk in Palermo, Sicily, one Giuseppe Piazzi, saw in his telescope an object like a small planet. Piazzi named it Ceres, after the Sicilian goddess of grain. By the end of the 19th century...
SMALL SOLAR SYSTEM DENIZEN GETS BIG CHANCE TO SHINE
Newspaper article from: Roanoke Times & World News; 8/27/2007; ; 700+ words ; ...On Jan. 1, 1801, the Italian astronomer Father Giuseppe Piazzi stumbled across an unknown object. At first he thought...Mars and Jupiter, he concluded it was a new planet. Piazzi named it Ceres. Oddly, Ceres appeared starlike even...
TWINKLE, TWINKLE LITTLE SCAM
Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe; 12/19/1988; ; 700+ words ; ...Delphinus, first appeared in the Palermo Catalogue compiled by the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi in 1814. The names puzzled experts until someone remembered that Piazzi had an assistant, Niccolo Cacciatore (in Latin, Nicolaus Venator), whose...
Rock around the planets
Newspaper article from: Chicago Sun-Times; 3/13/1998; ; 700+ words ; ...On New Year's Day, 1801, an Italian monk named Giuseppe Piazzi, working at the Palermo Observatory, detected a faint...because of its position relative to the sun. The pinpoint Piazzi was tracking was eventually named Ceres, the largest...
Numerical patterns in nature.
Magazine article from: World and I; 5/1/1998; ; 700+ words ; ...search the sky. Ironically, success came not to someone in the group but to the Sicilian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, on January 1, 1801. Piazzi discovered a small object that seemed to be the missing planet, and he named it Ceres--after the...
Science: stars and planets january
Newspaper article from: The Independent - London; 1/5/2001; ; 700+ words ; ...ago, on 1 January 1801, an Italian astronomer called Giuseppe Piazzi discovered a new world orbiting the Sun. But was it...police" to search for the missing body. In the event, Piazzi (not a member of the "police") got there first...
Word of the week: Asteroid
Newspaper article from: Scotland on Sunday; 7/28/2002; 451 words ; ...species failed to survive. The first and largest asteroid, Ceres, was discovered in 1801 by the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, and the word 'asteroid' first appeared in the English language in 1802. The word literally means 'star-shaped...

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