Famous Astronomers
Nicolaus Copernicus was born in 1473 in the town of Torun in Poland, the youngest child of a well to do family of German origin. By the age of 10 both his parents had died, leaving him under the care of his wealthy, influential and educated Uncle.
Galileo Galilei was born in 1564 in the town of Pisa in central Italy. He received a religious education as a child and by his early adulthood was a devout catholic. At the age of 17 his ambition was to become a priest but was instead encouraged by his father to enroll at the University of Pisa in order to study medicine.
William Herschel was born in Hannover in Germany in 1738. As his father was a musician in the Hannover Guard his early life was devoted to music.
William followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a musician in the Guard.
Isaac Newton was born in Lincolnshire, England in 1643. By the time of his birth Newton’s father had already died, and by the age of three his mother re-married and left her young son in the care of his grandparents