Italian Astronomer
Amici was born in Modena, Italy in 1786. He
studied and graduated as an engineer in Bologna in 1807 and served as Professor
of Mathematics are at the university of Modena. He became then as Professor of
Astronomy and director of the Royal Museum observatory at Florence.
He made improvements in the mirrors of
reflecting telescopes and also developed prisms for use in refracting
spectroscopes. He used a hemispheric objective lens to get the first clear
microscopic view in 1837, with magnifications as large as 6000 times.
He also invented a combination of three
prisms that is still used in spectroscopy and is known as the 'Amici prism'. He
observed Jupiter's satellites by making improvements in the reflecting
telescope. He made accurate measurements of the polar and equatorial diameters
of the Sun, using his own design of micrometer.
