JOHANN ELBERT, a celebrated German astronomer, born January 19, 1747, at Hamburg, where his father kept a commercial academy. From his earliest years he was devoted to the mathematical sciences, especially astronomy. In the garret of his father's house, with the aid of a telescope constructed by himself, he eagerly made observations of the heavens; and at eighteen years of age had acquired so great a knowledge of astronomy, that when Dr Reimarus visited his father, young Bode was found occupied in calculating an eclipse of the sun. This incident was the means of introducing him to the notice of Professor Blisch, who at once afforded him every facility for prosecuting his labours with success. Shortly afterwards Bode gave the first public proof of his knowledge by a short work on the solar eclipse of August 5, 1760; and this was followed by his Anleitung zur Kenntniss des gestirnten Himels, an elementary treatise on astronomy, which was eminently successful, and has since gone through numerous editions. In 1772, being called to Berlin by Frederic II., he was made astronomer to the Academy of Sciences, and afterwards a member of that institution. The well-known periodical work entitled Astronomische Jahrbücher, which is continued to the present day, was commenced by Bode in 1774; but that on which his fame chiefly rests is the Uranographia, published in 1801, in which the industrious author has given observations of 17,240 stars, or 12,000 more than are to be found in any older charts. This veteran observer, who may justly be said to have been the first to diffuse a general taste for astronomy in Germany, died at Berlin, Nov. 23, 1826.