199 years ago today, on July 22, 1826 (June 18, 1826), the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi died. Giuseppe Piazzi (July 7, 1746 - July 22, 1826), born in Italy, was a priest and an astronomer. He was professor of theology in Rome in 1779 and professor of mathematics at the Faculty of Palermo a year later. In 1790, an official observatory was established in Palermo and he served as director until 1817. After that, another official observatory was established in Naples. Piazzi is best known for discovering the first asteroid on the first day of the 19th century. On the night of January 1, 1801, Piazzi noticed a star moving in the background sky. At first he thought it was just a new star, moving only because of an observation error, but after observing again three nights later, he was sure that the star was not a star. However, cautiously, he only announced at first that it was a comet. But since the object was not cloudy and moved slowly and evenly, he also realized that it might not be a comet. At that time, a large amount of observational data was required to determine the orbit of the comet, but the object soon disappeared into sunlight. It was only thanks to the famous German mathematician Gauss who developed a new method for calculating the orbit that astronomers were able to find it again. When its orbit was determined, Piazzi's conjecture was confirmed that the object was not a comet, but a tiny planet in almost the same position as predicted by the Titius-Bode rule. Piazzi named the asteroid Ceres Ferdinandea, and the star is also the largest and heaviest asteroid in the asteroid belt.