Elisabeth Hevelius

Astronomer

Elisabeth Catherina Koopmann Hevelius (in Polish called Elżbieta Heweliusz; January 17, 1647 – December 22, 1693) is considered one of the first female astronomers. Originally from Danzig, Poland, she contributed to improve the work and observations done together with her husband Johannes Hevelius.

Elisabeth Koopmann (or Kaufmann, "merchant") was, like Hevelius and his first wife, a member of a rich merchant family in the city of Danzig (Gdańsk) located in Pomeranian Voivodeship of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and a member of the trade organisation called Hansa. Elisabetha Koopman's parents were Nicholas Koopman (the Dutch word for "Merchant") (1601 1672) who was a prosperous merchant and Joanna Mennings (or Menninx) (1602 1679). Nicholas and Joanna were married in Amsterdam in 1633. They moved from Amsterdam to Hamburg then, in 1636, they moved to Danzig. It was in this city, largely German speaking but a part of Poland at the time, that their daughter Elisabetha was born.

It was a fascination for astronomy which led Elisabetha, when still only a child, to approach Johannes Hevelius, an astronomer of international repute who had a complex of three houses in Danzig which contained the best observatory in the world. The marriage of the seventeen year old to fifty two year old Hevelius in 1663 allowed her also to pursue her own interest in astronomy by helping him manage his observatory. They had a son, who died soon after birth, and three daughters who survived. The eldest of the three daughters was named Catherina Elisabetha (after her mother) and baptized in St Catherine's Church, Danzig, on 14 February 1666. From the writings of Johann III Bernoulli we know that Elisabetha contracted smallpox and was permanently scarred by it. Following his death in 1687, she completed and published Prodromus astronomiae (1690), their jointly compiled catalogue of 1,564 stars and their positions. The work included information on their methods of calculations and examples of how they determined latitude and longitude of stars using the sectant and quadrant. The book, however, was published only with Johannes name as author.

Elisabeth, a scholar who had mastered the intricacies of Latin, harnessed her linguistic prowess to engage in intellectual exchanges with fellow scientists. Remarkably, Elisabeth's command of Latin was not the result of formal education but a testament to her self directed commitment to broadening her intellectual horizons. Their observatory in Danzig became a hub of innovation, where they employed sophisticated tools such as brass sextants and octants. The minor planet 12625 Koopman is named in her honour, as is the crater Corpman on Venus.