Articles | Volume 2, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-2-89-2011
https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-2-89-2011
09 Aug 2011
 | 09 Aug 2011

Johann Christian Heuson, a little-known auroral scholar of the early 18th century

K. Schlegel and S. Silverman

Abstract. Heuson published two booklets of observations of the aurora of 17/18 February, 1/2 March 1721, and 16/17 November 1729 together with contemporary thoughts about the subject. His work characterizes him as a well-educated scholar familiar with contemporary auroral observations and theories. Heuson rejects views of the aurora as an omen or portent of divine wrath, but explains the aurora as a natural phenomenon and is thus in line with other well-known auroral scholars of that time.