Comas Solá, José

BornBarcelona, Spain, 19 December 1868

DiedBarcelona, Spain, 2 December 1937

José Comas Solá was the leading astronomer in Spain at the beginning of the twentieth century. Born and educated in Barcelona, Comas Solá made his first astronomical observations in 1886 at the private observatory of Rafael Patxot in Sant Feliu de Guixols. He studied at the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Barcelona, graduating in 1889. In that year he began observing Mars with a 6-in. Grubb refractor, continuing his observations through all subsequent oppositions of this planet. By 1894 Comas Solá had accumulated enough observations to produce an albedo map of Mars. Extending his observations to other planets, Comas Solá determined the rotational period of Saturn in 1902.

After being elected to the Barcelona Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1901, Comas Solá was founder and first director of the Fabra Observatory of the academy between 1903 and 1937. The observatory, located on...