Peter Apian

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Peter Apian

1495-1552

German astronomer and geographer best known for noting comet tails point away from the Sun (1531). Apian's first major work, Cosmographia seu descripto totius orbis (1524), describes the use of maps and surveying techniques, defines weather and climate, and suggests lunar distances be used for calculating longitude. In Instrumentum sinuum sive primi mobilis (1534) he published the first table of sines calculated for every minute. Apian also produced the first large-scale map of Europe (1534).