Danzig banknotes 10000000 Mark banknote 1923 Johannes Hevelius
Obverse: Portrait of Johannes Hevelius [painting by Daniel Schultz the Younger] (28 January 1611 – 28 January 1687) was a councillor and mayor of Gdańsk, then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As an astronomer he gained a reputation as "the founder of lunar topography" and described ten new constellations, seven of which are still recognized by astronomers. Coat of arms of Free City of Danzig (1921-1939) at right.
Reverse: The shipyards on the Mottlau River in Danzig.
Danzig banknotes - Danzig paper money
Senat der Stadtgemeinde Danzig 1922-1923 Issue
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Johannes Hevelius
Johannes Hevelius, (Latin), German Johann Hewel, or Johann Howelcke, Polish Jan Heweliusz (born Jan. 28, 1611, Gdańsk, Poland — died Jan. 28, 1687, Gdańsk) was a councillor and mayor of Gdańsk, then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As an astronomer who compiled an atlas of the Moon (Selenographia, published 1647) containing one of the earliest detailed maps of its surface as well as names for many of its features. A few of his names for lunar mountains (e.g., the Alps) are still in use, and a lunar crater is named for him. Hevelius also made a catalog of 1,564 stars, the most comprehensive of its time, and a celestial atlas in which several constellations, now accepted, were shown for the first time. After his death, the catalog and the atlas were published together (Prodromus Astronomiae, 1690) by his wife, Elisabetha, who had collaborated with him in his observations.
A member of a noble family of Gdańsk, Hevelius was a city councillor and a brewer. After studying at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, he returned to Gdańsk and built an observatory atop his house and equipped it with fine instruments of his own making. Although he built and used telescopes, he preferred to measure celestial positions without the aid of lenses. In 1679 the English astronomer Edmond Halley visited Hevelius and compared the use of a sextant having telescopic sights with Hevelius’ sextant with open sights. Hevelius showed that he could determine stellar positions about as accurately without a telescope as Halley could with one.