Johann Bayer

Johann Bayer (1572 to 1625) was a German lawyer and uranographer, or celestial cartographer, born in Rain. In 1592, aged 20, he began studying philosophy and law at the University of Ingolstadt, then moved to Augsburg to practise law and became legal adviser to the city council in 1612. Archaeology and mathematics were among his outside interests, but he is mainly known for astronomy, in particular for fixing the positions of objects on the celestial sphere. His star atlas Uranometria Omnium Asterismorum, first published in Augsburg in 1603, was the first atlas to cover the whole celestial sphere. It built on the work of Tycho Brahe, added about 1,000 stars beyond an earlier atlas by Alessandro Piccolomini, introduced the Bayer designation for stars, and included twelve new southern constellations. A lunar crater bears his name.