Maria Clara Eimmart

Maria Clara Eimmart (27 May 1676 – 28 October 1707) was a German astronomer, engraver and artist known for her detailed astronomical illustrations. Working at the Nuremberg observatory established by her father, astronomer Georg Christoph Eimmart the Younger, she recorded observations of the Moon, planets, comets and eclipses.

Between 1693 and 1698, Eimmart produced hundreds of telescopic studies documenting the phases of the Moon. Her surviving depictions of the 1706 eclipse, rediscovered at the Berlin State Library in 2012, have been used by modern researchers studying the solar corona during the Maunder Minimum. 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.

Astronomical paintings

Eimmart combined her training as an artist with her work at her father's observatory in Nuremberg. In addition to astronomical subjects, she made pictures of flowers, fruit and figures from classical antiquity. Her astronomical work included studies of the Moon, planets, comets and eclipses.

On 12 May 1706, aged 29, Eimmart observed a total solar eclipse from Nuremberg and made two coloured depictions of the event. They show the solar corona, the Sun's outer atmosphere, visible around the Moon during the eclipse. Another copy was given to the Nuremberg City Library but was later lost. Between 1693 and 1698, Eimmart made over 350 drawings of the phases of the moon. 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