Polish people are considered great romantics - star-gazers. The most famous of them to gaze up at the heavens scientifically was (Nicholaus Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik)), who "stopped the Sun and moved the Earth". Joannes Hevelius (Jan Heweliusz) followed in Cipernicus' footsteps in his work on the Moon with what was the largest telescope in the world at that time (50 m.) . He gave names to many of the sites on the surface of the Moon, as well as seven constellations. In 1664 Hevelius became a member of the Royal Society of London, the most important scientific institution in Europe at the time, in recognition of his achievements, which had made him famous throughout Europe.
Adam Prażmowski, who also liked to gaze up at the heavens, discovered the polarsed emission from the sun's corona (1860). Tadeusz Banachiewicz developed a new matrix calculus, known as Trakowian theory, which reduced the number of operations and opportunities for error in astronomical calculations. He was the first to calculate the orbit of Pluto (1930) .
Research by another Polish astronomer, Michał Kamieński, led to a more precise determination when the events in ancient history occurred, whose exact dates are either unknown or uncertain, such as the destruction of Troy, ca. 1150 BC, or the Atlantis disaster, ca. 9540 BC).
Polish astronomers have not only been interested in theory, however. Mieczysław G. Bekker was also a specialist in vehicle design. He worked for General Motors in Santa Barbara and was also an advisor to the U.S. and Canadian military authorities. In fact, his interest in space began with his work for the military. He designed the lunar vehicle used by the Apollo 15, Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 moon missions. He held many patents in the field of vehicular construction, including those intended for use on other planets.
The best known-contemporary Polish astronomer is Aleksander Wolszczan. He was the first to discover planets outside our solar system. In 1992 he discovered three planets revolving around a neutron star, the pulsar PSR B1257+12 in the constellation of Virgo.
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