98 A CENTURY'S PROGRESS IN ASTRONOMY. 



to a separate astronomer. One of them was 

 reserved for Giuseppe Piazzi (1746-1826), director 

 of the Observatory of Palermo. 



Born in 1746 at Ponte, in Lombardy, Giuseppe 

 Piazzi, after entering the Theatine Order of 

 monks, became in 1780 Professor of Mathematics 

 at Palermo, where an observatory was erected 

 in 1791 ; and at that observatory Piazzi worked 

 till his death in 1826. In 1792 he commenced 

 a great star -catalogue, and while making his 

 nightly observations he discovered, on January 1, 

 1801 the first night of the nineteenth century, 

 what he took to be a tailless comet, but which 

 proved to be a small planet revolving round 

 the sun in the vacant space. The discovery 

 was hailed by Bode and Von Zach with much 

 enthusiasm, and Piazzi named the planet Ceres. 

 The little planet was, however, soon lost in the 

 rays of the sun before sufficient observations 

 had been made ; but the great mathematician, 

 Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855), came to the rescue, 

 and pointed out the spot where the planet was 

 to be rediscovered. In that spot it was found 

 on December 31, 1801, by Yon Zach at Gotha, 

 and on the following evening by Heinrich Gibers 

 (1758-1840) at Bremen. 



On March 28, 1802, while observing Ceres 



