Niccolò Cacciatore (; 26 January 1770 – 28 January 1841) was an Italian
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...
.
Cacciatore was born at
Casteltermini
Casteltermini is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Agrigento in the Italian region Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 ...
, in
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
. While studying
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
and
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
in
Palermo
Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...
, he became acquainted with
Giuseppe Piazzi
Giuseppe Piazzi ( , ; 16 July 1746 – 22 July 1826) was an Italian Catholic priest of the Theatine order, mathematician, and astronomer. He established an observatory at Palermo, now the '' Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo – Giuseppe S ...
, head of the
Palermo Astronomical Observatory
The Giuseppe S. Vaiana Astronomical Observatory is an astronomical observatory located in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, housed inside the Palazzo dei Normanni. It is one of the research facilities of the National Institute of Astrophysics. The observat ...
, and became a graduate student assistant at the observatory in 1798. Two years later, in 1800, the year before Piazzi discovered
Ceres
Ceres most commonly refers to:
* Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid
* Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture
Ceres may also refer to:
Places
Brazil
* Ceres, Goiás, Brazil
* Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás ...
, Cacciatore was formally put on staff.
[
Cacciatore helped Piazzi compile the second edition of the Palermo Star Catalogue (1814). He did the bulk of the work, in fact heading the project starting in 1807. He also published works on the ]comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
s of 1807 and 1819.[
Cacciatore succeeded Piazzi as director of the Palermo Observatory in 1817. As such, his most notable observation was the discovery of ]globular cluster
A globular cluster is a spheroidal conglomeration of stars. Globular clusters are bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards their centers. They can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to many millions of membe ...
NGC 6541 on 19 March 1826. The observatory was attacked, and he was imprisoned, during the Sicilian Revolution of 1820, but he survived to restore the facility and lead it for two more decades.[
In addition to astronomy, he was an expert on ]meteorology
Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...
, and wrote a number of books on the subject. Further, after the political troubles of 1820, he served as a member of the legislature of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ( it, Regno delle Due Sicilie) was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1860. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and size in Italy before Italian unification, comprising Sicily and a ...
.[ Cacciatore was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the ]American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
in 1837.
He married Emmanuela Martini in 1812, with whom he had five children. His son, Gaetano, succeeded him as director of the observatory.[
]
Sualocin and Rotanev
Alpha
Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...
and Beta Delphini are a pair of visually unremarkable 4th magnitude
Magnitude may refer to:
Mathematics
*Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction
*Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object
*Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector
*Order of ...
stars. When the Palermo Catalogue was published in 1814, the unfamiliar names ''Sualocin'' and ''Rotanev'' were attached to them. Eventually the Reverend Thomas William Webb
Thomas William Webb (14 December 1807 – 19 May 1885) was a British astronomer. Some sources give his year of birth as 1806. The only son of a clergyman, the Rev. John Webb, he was raised and educated by his father, his mother having died ...
, a British astronomer, puzzled out the explanation.[ Cacciatore's name, ''Nicholas Hunter'' in English translation, would be ]Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
ized to ''Nicolaus Venator''. Reversing the letters of this construction produces the two star names. They have endured, the result of Cacciatore's little practical joke of naming the two stars after himself. How Webb arrived at this explanation 45 years after the publication of the catalogue is still a mystery. In 2016, the two names were approved as official by the International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...
(IAU).
Works
*
See also
* James Dunlop
James Dunlop FRSE (31 October 1793 – 22 September 1848) was a Scottish astronomer, noted for his work in Australia. He was employed by Sir Thomas Brisbane to work as astronomer's assistant at his private observatory, once located at Paramat ...
* Thomas William Webb
Thomas William Webb (14 December 1807 – 19 May 1885) was a British astronomer. Some sources give his year of birth as 1806. The only son of a clergyman, the Rev. John Webb, he was raised and educated by his father, his mother having died ...
References
Further reading
Cacciatore at ''NGC/IC observers''; includes picture
* For NGC 6541 ''see'' Olbers AN #104, "Ein neuer Nebelfleck" AN #113, and Biela AN #120
1770 births
1841 deaths
People from the Province of Agrigento
19th-century Italian astronomers
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Scientists from Sicily
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