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Marcin Poczobutt-Odlanicki
Poczobutt-Odlanicki Marcin
(30.10.1728–20.02.1810)
Astronomer and mathematician, enlightener; rector of the Main School of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and director of the Royal Observatory in Wilno
Marcin Poczobutt-Odlanicki was born in an estate near a village Slomyantsy, Grodno district. In 1740–1743 he studied at the Jesuit Collegium in Grodno. In 1745 he joined the Jesuit Order, during the two-year novitiate he was in Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania). In 1747–1748 he studied at the Pedagogical Seminary in Slutsk. In 1749–1752 Poczobutt-Odlanicki studied philosophy and worked at Jesuit Collegium in Polotsk, in 1753–1754 he worked at Jesuit Academy in Wilno. Poczobutt-Odlanicki was sent to Prague University to improve his knowledge. In 1756 he returned and continued his studies on theology and astronomy. After receiving in 1761 the degree of Bachelor of Theology, Poczobutt-Odlanicki again went abroad to improve the knowledge in the astronomical observatories of Marseille, Avignon, Naples and Rome. On his return to Wilno in 1764 he got the degree of Master of philosophy and liberal arts. Since 1764 Marcin Poczobutt-Odlanicki was a professor of Wilno Jesuit Academy which in 1780 he reorganized into the Main School of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and became its rector (1780–1799). On his initiative there were established the Physical Department with the Faculties of Mathematics, Physics and Medicine, the Department of the Moral Sciences with the Faculties of Logic and Law; well-known scientists were invited to teach there. He finished the building of Wilno Astronomical Observatory; in 1765–1807 he was its first director. In 1767 Poczobutt-Odlanicki was awarded a title of Royal astronomer, and the Observatory was given a royal status. For over thirty years there were made observations under his leadership, and all the results were noted in special handwritten journals in which the location of celestial bodies and their movement were recorded daily. After visiting observatories in England, Denmark, Germany, Holland and France in 1768–1769, in the Wilno Observatory he organized observations for sunspots and development of ways how to measure the distance between Earth and Sun. He is an author of several works on astronomy and the translation work on geometry. Of all his astronomical works the observations of Mercury deserve attention, as they served J.J. Lalande, a French scientist, as a material for making new astronomical tables. He observed comets, asteroids, eclipses of the Sun and the Moon. In 1773 he calculated the position of 16 stars located near the constellation Shield of Sobieski. In 1777 he formed from small stars the constellation Taurus Poniatowski named after the last Polish king Stanislaw August Poniatowski. In addition to astronomy he was also engaged in geodesy and cartography. In 1766 he ascertained the exact geographical coordinates of Wilno, calculated the longitude of Grodno, and then he got more precise results according to the observations of the solar eclipse on August 5, 1793. Marcin Poczobutt-Odlanicki participated in work of the Educational Commission which reformed the educational system in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Poczobutt-Odlanicki was a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London (1770), a Corresponding Member of the French Academy of Sciences (1778), a member of the Society of Friends of Science in Warsaw (1800). Marcin Poczobutt-Odlanicki was awarded the Order of Saint Stanislaus (1785), the Order of the White Eagle (1793). A crater on the dark side of the Moon has his name. He died in Dinaburg (now in Latvia).
Works:
1. Calculus Eclipseos Lunaris, Quae Accidet die 24 Februarii 1766. Pro Observatorio Academica Vilnensi S. I. Institutus. Vilnae, 1766.
2. Poczatki geometryi, dzielo Clairaut, przeklad z francuskiego. Wilno, 1772.
3. Cahier des observations astronomiques faites а l’Observatoire royale de Vilno en 1773. Wilno, 1777.
4. О dawnosci Zodyjaku Egipskiego w Denderach. Wilno, 1803.
Literature:
1. Рыбко М. Я. Мысліцелі i асветнікі Беларусі. Энцыклапедычны даведник. Мінск: Беларуская энцыклапедыя, 1995. С. 271–274.
© National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 2011
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