Hisako Koyama, the Japanese amateur astronomer who rose to Galileo's level

Hisako Koyama is a Japanese astronomy , which with nothing more than a secondary education, made history when his thousands of sunspot illustrations were published next to the work of brilliant figures like Galileo Galilei himself.

Hisako Koyama, the amateur astronomer who made history with his illustrations

Hisako Koyama was born in 1916 and graduated from a Tokyo high school in the 1930s, something that if it was a rare hazana for any young man of that time.In Japan prior to World War II, women had a secondary role in society; they were not entitled to vote and were encouraged to comply with the saying "umeyo, fuyaseyo": have more babies and increase the population.

However, this was never enough to Hisako Koyama.His passion for astronomy led her to devour books on the subject.He even made his own telescope after being inspired by a trip to the Tonichi Planetarium in Tokyo, and later his always encouraging father I gave him a refractor telescope bought at a store.

Koyama used that same telescope to see the sun.After a month of careful observation, he managed to draw his first sunspots in 1944 After achieving this, he faced a greater challenge: to gather enough courage to send his work by mail to Professor Issei Yamamoto, president of the solar section of the Eastern Astronomical Association (OAA).

Hisako Koyama, the Japanese amateur astronomer who rose to Galileo's level

Against all odds, received an answer:" Thank you for your observation report.Yes, they are sunspots, "wrote the professor.That little positive response was all that Koyama needed to dive headlong into a life of astronomy .

I spend the next two years making regular observations of the sun at the National Museum of Nature and Science of Tokyo, then known as the Tokyo Science Museum, was hired as part of the observation staff in in 1946, and continued to work for the museum until he retired in 1981.During that time At the time, he made a chronicle and published more than 8000 sunspot groups, including the largest sunspot of the twentieth century, in 1947.

However, his work did not stop there.Koyama was passionate science communicator and organized frequent special events and monthly seminars for the public From the beginning of his career until his death in 1997, Koyama made more than 10,000 solar sketches.

Decades later, a group of scientists try to discover how many sunspots humanity has seen since the first observation in 1610 to the present.While they were reviewing 400 years of historical observations , they found Koyama's work, and added their drawings to the others they had collected from illustrious names like Pierre Gassendi, Johann Caspar Staudacher, Heinrich Schwabe, Rudolf Wolf, and of course, Galileo Galilei.

As you can see, it began as a passion that seemed not to have too much substance, ended up placing Hisako Koyama at the height of great figures like the Galileo Galilei himself.

What do you think of his story? It is certainly inspiring.

Images: CalAcademy/NASA

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