1663 in science

Astronomy

• James Gregory publishes Optica Promota, describing the Gregorian telescope.

  Exploration

• March 4 – The Prince Edward Islands in the sub-antarctic Indian Ocean are discovered by Barent Barentszoon Lam of the Dutch ship Maerseveen and named Dina and Maerseveen.

  Mathematics

• The first book about games of chance, Girolamo Cardano's Liber de ludo aleae, written in the 1560s, is published.

  Meteorology

• October 7 – Robert Hooke presents his "Method for making a history of the weather" to the Royal Society.

  Publications

• Robert Boyle publishes Considerations touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy.

  Births

• August 31 – Guillaume Amontons, French scientific instrument inventor and physicist

  Deaths

• December 28 – Francesco Maria Grimaldi, Italian physicist