J.C. Kapteyn Home Page

Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn
(1851 - 1922)




This Webpage accompanies a biography:

Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn:
Born investigator of the Heavens

by Pieter C. van der Kruit,

volume 416 in the Astrophysics and Space Science Library of Springer Publishers, (ISBN 978-3-319-10875-9). See also the product flyer.

The biography and this Website are dedicated to Professor Adriaan Blaauw (1914--2010), who brought the Kapteyn Astronomical Laboratory as its third director back to the national and international forefront and encouraged me over a long period to write this biography after my formal retirement and --last but not least-- to my wife Corry for her love and support and for her understanding that active professional life should not end at 65.

PREVIEW
The eBook version was published on November 19, 2014 and is since then available via the Springer site. It offers free previews of the Front Matter (titlepage, Preface, Acknowledgments, Table of Contents) and Back Matter (Appendices, References, Index).
Also some free sample pages are made available by Springer.
The printed version was published on November 20, 2014.
Members of universities with the right agreement with Springer can download the book for free as a .pdf or .ePub, or order a MyCopy (paperback, B/W only) for 24.99 Euros, dollars, Pounds, etc. The same is true for the Legacy book.
For Groningen staff and students the access to the biography is through this link and log in.

Look at a short video on Kapteyn produced at the occasion of the fourth centennial of the university in 2014 (in Dutch with English undertitles), or for those speaking Dutch een ongeveer een uur durend interview.


For Dutch speakers: Ik heb een Nederlands-talige biografie geschreven onder titel De Inrichting van de Hemel: Een biografie van astronoom Jacobus C. Kapteyn. Deze is verschenen in april 2016.
Deze is niet meer bij Amsterdam University Press verkrijgbaar. Electronische versies (zowel .pdf als .ePub) zijn wel verkrijgbaar voor 15.00 Euros middels een email naar www.astro.rug.nl/~vdkruit.

For English speakers: An English translation of this has appeared in December 2020 in the series Springer Biographies. Here is a more mathematical version of Appendix A for aficionados.
Visit the Springer page and the Springer product flyer.

Some presentations on Kapteyn:
The born investigator of the heavens (movie-clips may not work).
Jacobus C. Kapteyn (1851-1922): Born investigator of the Heavens , Invited review at the Seychelles (May 2014) and colloquium given at a number of places.
The born investigator of the Heavens, Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (1851-1922).
Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (1851-1922) - Master of accuracy. Presentation at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Vienna in August 2018.
Jacobus C. Kapteyn - De geboren onderzoeker van de hemel. Lezing voor de KNVWS te Alkmaar in november 2021.


These biographies were preceded by proceedings of the Legacy Symposium on Kapteyn, held in Groningen in 1999 and edited by myself and Klaas van Berkel.



In preparation of my Kapteyn biographies I have provided a new English translation of the Dutch biography that his daughter Henriette Hertzsprung-Kapteyn wrote in 1928.

This page has been developed and is maintained by
Prof. dr P.C. van der Kruit,
Emeritus Jacobus C. Kapteyn Distinguished Professor of Astronomy
Kapteyn Astronomical Institute,
University of Groningen
P.O. Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, the Netherlands
Tel: +31 50 363 4062 / 4073 ;
Fax:+31 50 363 6100
E-mail: vdkruit@astro.rug.nl
WWW: www.astro.rug.nl/~vdkruit


             Contents of this page (see also sidebar)

             Book presentation
             Kapteyn genealogies
             Kapteyn short biographies
             Kapteyn obituaries
             Publications about Kapteyn
             Henriette Hertzsprung-Kapteyn's biography
             Kapteyn Legacy Symposium
             Love Letters
             Kapteyn's publications
             Kapteyn correspondence
             Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
             Kapteyn Room