Johann Baptist Cysat

In 1618, Cysat was named professor of mathematics at the University of Ingolstadt, succeeding Scheiner in this position, thereby allowing him to concern himself further with astronomical problems.

Cysat saw enough detail to be the first to describe cometary nuclei, and was able to track the progression of the nucleus from a solid shape to one filled with starry particles.

This work also includes Cysat’s observations on the Orion Nebula (he is sometimes, probably erroneously, credited with its discovery), which he compared to the nature of the comet.

[1] During the seventeenth century, regulations laid down by printing guilds sometimes allowed widows and daughters to take over their husbands’ or fathers’ businesses.

After a stay in Spain in 1627, where he taught at the Jesuit Colegio Imperial de Madrid, he returned to Ingolstadt in 1630 and served as rector in Innsbruck in 1637 and Eichstätt in 1646.