Giovanni Battista Hodierna, also spelled as Odierna (13 April 1597 â 6 April 1660) was an Italian astronomer at the court of Giulio Tomasi, Duke of Palma (Palma di Montechiaro). He compiled a catalogue of comets and other celestial objects containing some 40 entries, including at least 19 real and verifiable nebulous objects that might be confused with comets.
Hodierna was born in Ragusa, Sicily and died in Palma di Montechiaro. While serving as a Roman Catholic priest in Ragusa, he also practised astronomy.
In 1654 he published a book entitled that contained a catalogue of celestial objects and a list of double stars. The work anticipated Messier's catalogue and the double star catalogues by Christian Mayer and William Herschel, but had little impact. Messier seems not to have known of it.
Hodierna was prolific in publication, and his interests spanned many disciplines. In addition to his astronomical observations, he utilized optic microscopes to study insects, publishing on the multifaceted eye of flies and that in bee colonies only the queen is oviparous.