Coat-of-arms of Bavarian physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787-1826)

Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787-1826)
Bavarian optical engineer, knighted in 1824.
Inventor of the diffraction grating (1821) and spectroscope (1814).
Studied the Fraunhofer lines in the solar spectrum (1813).

The above is a copyrighted image reproduced by permission. © 2006 Jochen Wilke.
(The background in Wilke's design evokes the dark Fraunhofer lines in the solar spectrum.)

Per fess; [1] Per pale Sable a fleur-de-Lys Or and Or a fleur-de-lys Argent.
[2] Gules a unicorn in full course Argent.
Crest: On a coronet Or, a fleur-de-lys per pale Sable and Or,
between two buffalo horns of the Colors.
Mantling: Or and Gules.

Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787-1826)
Drawing by Carl Christian Vogelstein,
November 10, 1825

APPROXIMAVITSIDERA
"He made the stars closer."
(Funeral epitaph by his mentor,
Joseph Utzschneider.)

The dark lines in a stellar spectrum correspond to definite frequencies absorbed by chemical substances in the outer layers of the star. The presence of dark lines in the solar spectrum was first noticed in 1802 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston (1766-1828). They were rediscovered in 1813 by Joseph Fraunhofer, who mapped and named over 570 of them. The symbols which Fraunhofer coined for the major ones are still used today. In 1817, Fraunhofer observed the spectrum of other stars and found matching lines which could be more or less prominent (or even absent).

Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787-1826) Bavarian optical engineer, knighted in 1824. Inventor of the diffraction grating (1821) and spectroscope (1814). Studied the Fraunhofer lines in the solar spectrum (1813).

Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787-1826)
Bavarian optical engineer, knighted in 1824.
Inventor of the diffraction grating (1821) and spectroscope (1814).
Studied the Fraunhofer lines in the solar spectrum (1813).