Abetti, Giorgio (1882–1982)

Italian astrophysicist. He wrote a popular text on the Sun 1963, participated in numerous expeditions to observe eclipses of the Sun, and led one such expedition to Siberia to observe the total solar eclipse of 19 June 1936.

Abetti was born in Padua and studied at the universities of Padua and Rome. He was a professor at the University of Florence 1921–57 and director of the Arcetri Observatory there 1921–52. He wrote a handbook of astrophysics, published 1936, and a popular history of astronomy, which appeared in English 1952.