Michael Maestlin (also Mästlin, Möstlin, or Moestlin) (30 September 1550 in Göppingen, Germany - 20 October 1631) was a German astronomer and mathematician, known for being the mentor of Johannes Kepler.

Career

In 1580 he became a Professor of mathematics, first at the University of Heidelberg, then at the University of Tübingen were he taught for 47 years from 1583. In 1582 Maestlin wrote a popular introduction to astronomy.

Among his students was Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). Although he primarily taught the traditional geocentric Ptolemaic view of the solar system, Maestlin was also one of the first to accept and teach the heliocentric Copernican view. Maestlin corresponded with Kepler frequently and played a sizable part in his adoption of the Copernican system. Galileo Galilei adoption of heliocentrism was also attributed to Maestlin .

The first known calculation of the (inverse) golden ratio as a decimal of "about 0.6180340" was written in 1597 by Maestlin in a letter to Kepler.

Notable astronomical observations

• Cataloged the Pleiades cluster on 24 December, 1579. Eleven stars in the cluster were recorded by Maestlin, and possibly as many as fourteen were observed.
• Occultation of Mars by Venus on 3 October, 1590, seen by Maestlin at Heidelberg.

Legacy

• Lunar Crater: Maestlin
• Lunar Rille: Rimae Maestlin
• Asteroid: 11771-Maestlin, discovered in 1973

In Jules Verne's Cinq semaines en balloon (Five Weeks in a Balloon) the character of Joe, the manservant, is described as enjoying, "in common with Moestlin, Kepler's professor, the rare faculty of distinguishing the satellites of Jupiter with the naked eye, and of counting fourteen of the stars in the group of Pleiades, the remotest of them being only of the ninth magnitude."

External links

• Complete translated text of Five Weeks in a Balloon from Project Gutenberg (English)

References