Eise Eisinga
| Eise Eisinga | |
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Portrait by Willem Bartel van der Kooi (1827)
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| Born |
Eise Jeltes Eisinga 21 February 1744 Dronrijp, Dutch Republic |
| Died | 27 August 1828 (aged 84) Franeker, Netherlands |
Eise Jeltes Eisinga (21 February 1744 – 27 August 1828) was a Frisian amateur astronomer who built the Eise Eisinga Planetarium in his house in Franeker, Frisia Province in the Netherlands. The orrery still exists and is the oldest functioning planetarium in the world.
Eise Jeltes Eisinga was born on 21 February 1744 in Dronrijp in the Dutch Republic. He was the son of Jelte Eises from Oosterlittens, a wool carder, and Hitje Steffens from Winsum.
Although Eisinga was moderately gifted, he was not allowed to go to school. When he was only 17 years old he published a book about the principles of astronomy. Eisinga became a wool carder in Franeker, Netherlands. Through self-education he mastered mathematics and astronomy, which he also studied at the Franeker Academy. At the age of 24 he married Pietje Jacobs (? – 24 July 1788) and they had three children, one girl and two boys.
Due to a political crisis in 1787, he had to leave Friesland and went to Germany. Later he moved to Visvliet where he worked as a wool comber. He was banned from Friesland for five years and therefore stayed in Visvliet just across the border in Groningen. Meanwhile his wife died, and on 27 May 1792 he married Trijntje Eelkes Sikkema (21 February 1764) in Visvliet. They had one son and two daughters.
In 1795 he returned to Franeker.
Eisinga became a professor at the Franeker Academy, until 1811 when Napoleon ordered it to be closed.
Eisinga died on 27 August 1828, at the age 84, in Franeker.
On 8 May 1774 a conjunction of the moon and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter was forecast to appear. Reverend Eelco Alta, from Boazum, Netherlands, published a book in which he interpreted this as a return to the state of the planets at the day of creation and a likely occasion for Armageddon. Alta predicted that the planets and the moon would collide, with the result that the earth would be pushed out of its orbit and burned by the sun. Due to this prediction there was a lot of panic in Friesland.
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Wikipedia