Sunspots are observed by telescope by Frisian astronomers Johannes Fabricius and David Fabricius and Johannes publishes the results of these observations in De Maculis in Sole observatis in Wittenberg later this year. Such early discoveries are overlooked however, and the first sighting is claimed a few months later by Galileo Galilei and Christoph Scheiner. Johannes Fabricius first observed a sunspot on February 27, 1611; in Wittenberg that year he published the results of his observations in his 22 page pamphlet Maculis in Sole Observatis, et Apparente earum cum Sole Conversione Narratio ("Narration on Spots Observed on the Sun and their Apparent Rotation with the Sun") in June 1611. Read more