ASTRONOMERS from China

Top 4

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Chinese Astronomers of all time. This list of famous Chinese Astronomers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Gan De (-400 - -400)

With an HPI of 54.95, Gan De is the most famous Chinese Astronomer.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages on wikipedia.

Gan De (Chinese: 甘德; fl. 4th century BC), also known as the Lord Gan (Gan Gong), was an ancient Chinese astronomer and astrologer born in the State of Qi. Along with Shi Shen, he is believed to be the first in history known by name to compile a star catalogue, preceded by the anonymous authors of the early Babylonian star catalogues and followed by the Greek Hipparchus who is the first known in the Western tradition of Hellenistic astronomy to have compiled a star catalogue. He also made observations of the planets, particularly Jupiter. His writings are lost, but some of his works' titles and fragments quoted from them are known from later texts. Gan De may have been the first to describe one of the Galilean moons of Jupiter, usually invisible without the aid of telescopes. In the 20th century, a fragment of Gan's work, in a later compilation of astronomical texts, was identified by Xi Zezong as describing a naked-eye observation of either of the two largest and brightest moons, Ganymede or Callisto in summer 365 BC.

2. Fang Lizhi (1936 - 2012)

With an HPI of 49.94, Fang Lizhi is the 2nd most famous Chinese Astronomer.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Fang Lizhi (Chinese: 方励之; pinyin: Fāng Lìzhī; February 12, 1936 – April 6, 2012) was a Chinese astrophysicist, vice-president of the University of Science and Technology of China, and activist whose liberal ideas inspired the pro-democracy student movement of 1986–87 and, finally, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Because of his activism, he was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party in January 1987. For his work, Fang was a recipient of the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award in 1989, given each year. He was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980, but his position was revoked after 1989.

3. Jing Fang (-78 - -37)

With an HPI of 49.35, Jing Fang is the 3rd most famous Chinese Astronomer.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Jing Fang (Chinese: 京房; pinyin: Jīng Fáng; Wade–Giles: Ching Fang, 78–37 BC), born Li Fang (李房), courtesy name Junming (君明), was born in present-day 東郡頓丘 (Puyang, Henan) during the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). He was a Chinese music theorist, mathematician and astronomer. Although better known for his work in musical measurements, he also accurately described the basic mechanics of lunar and solar eclipses.

4. John Dobson (1915 - 2014)

With an HPI of 44.93, John Dobson is the 4th most famous Chinese Astronomer.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

John Lowry Dobson (14 September 1915 – 15 January 2014) was an American amateur astronomer and is best known for the Dobsonian telescope, a portable, low-cost Newtonian reflector telescope. He was also known for his efforts to promote awareness of astronomy (and his unorthodox views of physical cosmology) through public lectures including his performances of "sidewalk astronomy". Dobson was also the co-founder of the amateur astronomical group, the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers.