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Maria Clara Eimmart

Maria Clara Eimmart is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Maria Clara Eimmart rather than just read about it. In short: Maria Clara Eimmart (27 May 1676 – 29 October 1707), was a German astronomer, engraver and designer. She was the daughter and assistant of Georg Christoph Eimmart the Younger.

Maria Clara Eimmart — main illustration
Maria Clara Eimmart — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Maria Clara Eimmart belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Maria Clara Eimmart to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Maria Clara Eimmart from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Maria Clara Eimmart (27 May 1676 – 29 October 1707), was a German astronomer, engraver and designer. She was the daughter and assistant of Georg Christoph Eimmart the Younger.

Early life Maria Clara Eimmart was born on 27 May 1676 in Nuremberg to Maria Walther and the artist and astronomer Georg Christoph Eimmart the Younger. She was their only surviving child; an older brother had died in infancy in 1669. When Eimmart was about two years old, her father built an astronomical observatory on the Vestnertor bastion of the Nuremberg city wall, north of Nuremberg Castle. Eimmart was educated by her father, who taught her painting, etching, Latin, French and mathematics. She became interested in astronomy while young and assisted with work at the observatory. A drawing she made of a Vestal Virgin in 1691, when she was about 15, survives in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg. Between 1693 and 1698, she made about 235 drawings of the phases of the Moon.

Marriage and family Eimmart married astronomer Johann Heinrich Müller on 20 January 1706, when she was 29. Müller had been a pupil of her father and succeeded him as director of the Nuremberg observatory. The couple had one child, a son named Michael, who was baptized on 23 July 1707. Michael died at about ten weeks old, in late September or early October.

Paintings and illustrations In 2012 Markus Heinz of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin discovered two paintings by her of a total solar eclipse that was seen in Nuremberg in 1706. These were known to have existed but were also thought lost. These paintings are in excellent agreement with text descriptions of the event and are now of considerable scientific importance, being a unique depiction by a trained astronomer of the solar corona during the Maunder minimum. Eimmart is best known for her exact astronomical illustrations done in pale pastels on dark blue cardboard. Between 1693 and 1698, Eimmart made over 350 drawings of the phases of the moon. This collection of drawings, drawn solely from observations through a telescope, was entitled Micrographia stellarum phases lunae ultra 300. Twelve of these were given to Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, a scientific collaborator of her father's, and ten survive in Bologna, together with three smaller studies on brown paper. Eimmart’s continuous series of depictions became the basis for a new lunar map. In 1706, Eimmart made two illustrations of the total eclipse at Nuremberg. There are also some drawings of planets and comets.

Death Eimmart died in Nuremberg on 28 October 1707, aged 31, about four weeks after the death of her son. Gaab states that she died from a "hectic fever" contracted following childbirth.

Gallery

See also Timeline of women in science

Notes

Literature Hans Gaab: Zum 300. Todestag von Maria Clara Eimmart (1676–1707). In: Regiomontanusbote. 20, 4/2007, S. 7–19. Hans Gaab: Maria Clara Eimmart. Eine Nürnberger Astronomin. In: Nadja Bennewitz, Gaby Franger: Geschichte der Frauen in Mittelfranken. Alltag, Personen und Orte. Ars vivendi, Cadolzburg 2003, S. 145–152. Ronald Stoyan: Die Nürnberger Mondkarten. Teil 1: Die Mondkarte von Georg Christoph Eimmart (1638–1705) und Maria Clara Eimmart (1676–1707). In: Regiomontanusbote. 14, 1/2001, S. 29–39. Karl Christian Bruhns (1877). "Eimmart, Georg Christoph" . Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol. 5. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. p. 758. Siegmund Günther (1885). "Müller, Johann Heinrich" . Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol. 22. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 583–585. Adolf Wißner (1959), "Georg Christoph Eimmart", Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) (in German) (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot) 4: 394–394, (full text online)

External links Astronomical Illustrations by Maria Clara Eimmart Maria Clara Eimmart at Astronomie in Nürnberg Georg Christoph Eimmart at Astronomie in Nürnberg Drawing of a Vestalin by Maria Clara Eimmart Germanischen Nationalmuseum Nürnberg

Illustrations

Maria Clara Eimmart illustration
Maria Clara Eimmart illustration
Maria Clara Eimmart illustration
Maria Clara Eimmart illustration
Maria Clara Eimmart illustration

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Maria Clara Eimmart

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Maria Clara Eimmart claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Maria Clara Eimmart before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Maria Clara Eimmart ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Maria Clara Eimmart

In research
Maria Clara Eimmart appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Maria Clara Eimmart in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Maria Clara Eimmart is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1676 births, 1707 deaths, 17th-century German astronomers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Maria Clara Eimmart outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Maria Clara Eimmart in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Maria Clara Eimmart means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Maria Clara Eimmart out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Maria Clara Eimmart in simple terms?

Maria Clara Eimmart (27 May 1676 – 29 October 1707), was a German astronomer, engraver and designer. She was the daughter and assistant of Georg Christoph Eimmart the Younger.

Why does Maria Clara Eimmart matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Maria Clara Eimmart?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Maria Clara Eimmart.

Tags

  • 1676 births
  • 1707 deaths
  • 17th-century German astronomers
  • 17th-century German engravers
  • 17th-century German women artists
  • 17th-century German women scientists
  • 18th-century German astronomers
  • 18th-century German women scientists
  • Deaths in childbirth
  • German women astronomers
  • German women engravers
  • Scientists from Nuremberg

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