FABRICIUS, JOHANNES

born Jan. 8, 1587, Resterhafe, Neth. died c. 1615 Dutch astronomer who may have been the first observer of sunspots (1610/1611) and was the first to publish information on such observations. He did so in his Narratio de maculis in sole observatis et apparente earum cum sole conversione (1611; Account of Spots Observed on the Sun and of Their Apparent Rotation with the Sun). The son of the astronomer David Fabricius, Johannes used a camera obscura as well as a telescope in his study of the Sun.