Adolph Cornelius Petersen

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Astronomische Nachrichten, Volume 32, Editor: Adolph Cornelius Petersen.

Adolph Cornelius Petersen (also: Adolf Cornelius Petersen or Adolphus Cornelius Petersen ; * July 28, 1804 in Bylderup-Bov ; † February 3, 1854 in Altona ) was a German astronomer , geodist and editor of the Astronomical News . From 1827 he was an observer, from 1850 head of the Altona observatory .

Life

Beginnings

Adolph Cornelius Petersen was born on July 28, 1804 in Bylderup-Bov in Southern Jutland, the son of a farmer. Until March 1820 he attended elementary school in the neighboring town of Buhrkall and supported his father in the field work. He completed a year-long apprenticeship as a land surveyor and was busy with surveying work and as a plan draftsman until 1824. After the February flood of 1825 , he was called in in the spring of 1825 to carry out dike construction work. There he met Captain von Caroc, a Danish engineer officer who supported the Altona astronomer and geodesist Heinrich Christian Schumacher with the Danish degree measurement.

Observator

Through von Caroc, Petersen got to know Schumacher, who employed him in 1827 as an assistant and observer at the Altona observatory . Petersen worked as an observer mainly with the observation and determination of the orbit of comets, with solar observations and with geographical position determination. He also supported Schumacher in the publication of the Astronomical News, in which he also documented his own work from 1829.

Petersen took part in Schumacher's Danish degree measurement and in its connection with the Swedish and Prussian degree measurement. In 1829/1830 he took part in the measurement of the length of the simple seconds pendulum with the Bessel pendulum apparatus on Gut Güldenstein . From 1845 to 1847 he carried out the topographical survey of part of Holstein. After Bessel's death in 1846, Petersen went to Königsberg to view the latter's records of his observations made with the Repsold meridian circles. In his will, Bessel had demanded that his observations from August Ludwig Busch (Bessel's successor) and from Petersen should be reduced to a new catalog of fundamental stars. It is not known how far Petersen and Busch's work progressed. The planned publication was not made due to the deaths of Petersen in 1854 and von Busch in 1855. Petersen made a name for himself in 1848 and 1850 by discovering three comets . After the discovery of Neptune by Urbain Le Verrier in 1846 he proved that Lalande observed the planet already in 1795, but had held for a fixed star.

Observatory manager

After Schumacher's death in 1850, Petersen became interim director of the observatory and editor of the Astronomical News . In May 1853 Petersen fell ill with a serious lung disease. He died unmarried on February 3, 1854 in Altona.

personality

Petersen was a simple and reserved man. In a letter to Gauss, he expressed a modest self-assessment:

"But I feel only too well how daring every comment by me about astronomical matters is against your high and well-born, and therefore I prefer not to say anything more about it."

When the director of the Mannheim observatory, Friedrich Bernhard Gottfried Nicolai, died in 1846, Schumacher Petersen would have liked to find the vacant position, as he wrote to his friend Gauß:

“I very much wish Petersen got Nicolai's job. He is an excellent man in every way. Of course I only wish this for him, not for me, because his loss as an assistant and friend would be irreplaceable for me. "

Nicolai's position was not filled again, however. In the same letter, Schumacher wrote of Petersen's outstanding abilities as an astronomical calculator:

“In his will, Bessel had demanded that the observations he made with Repsold's meridian circles for a new catalog of fundamental stars should only be reduced with Petersen's contribution, and he wanted Petersen to come to Konigsberg temporarily for this reason. He's been there for three weeks. But its position here, should I die, is very precarious, and so I am not allowed to take my own interests into account in any way. "

Astronomical News

Advertisement of Petersen's Disease in the Astronomical News, 1854.

In 1823 Heinrich Christian Schumacher founded the Astronomische Nachrichten , the leading astronomical specialist journal of the 19th century, which he published until his death in late 1850. Petersen has made one or more contributions to the Astronomical News almost every year since 1829 and supported Schumacher as an assistant in the editing process. After Schumacher's death, he initially took over the editing of volume 32 for 1851 and, after his appointment as interim director of the observatory, also edited the following volumes.

The editing work and the correspondence with astronomers from all over the world required almost all of Petersen's work. (In the middle of 1851 he wrote to Gauss that this was his 274th letter of that year.) He had observations and calculations carried out by the observator August Sonntag , who, however, left for America at the end of 1852 and was active as an explorer. Volumes 33–37 were published from 1852 to 1854 under the joint editorship of Petersen and Peter Andreas Hansen , the director of the Gotha observatory , but Hansen "acted as co-editor almost only on the title". When Petersen fell ill with a lung disease in May 1853, Hansen had to get more and more involved in the editorial team. Six weeks before his death, Petersen informed his readers on December 23, 1853 in a personal "advertisement" about his serious illness. After Petersen's death on February 3, 1854, Hansen edited volumes 38 and 39.

The Danish government appointed Christian August Friedrich Peters , previously associate professor of astronomy in Königsberg, as director of the Altona observatory and as editor of the Astronomical News. He moved to Altona in the fall of 1854 and began editing in 1855 with Volume 40. He continued the publication for 25 years up to Volume 80 in 1873.

Comet discoveries

comet Old
name
date JPL Astronomical News
Volume | Year | column
C / 1848 P1 (Petersen) 1848 I. August 8, 1848 [1] 27 1848 363
C / 1848 U1 (Petersen) 1848 II October 26, 1848 [2] 28 1849 59
C / 1850 J1 (Petersen) 1850 I. May 2, 1850 [3] 30th 1850 307

Petersen is often mentioned as the discoverer of comet C / 1852 K1 (Chacornac), which he observed on May 17, 1852, but which was discovered by Jean Chacornac in Marseille on May 15, 1852 .

Honors

  • 1846: Knight of the Red Eagle Order IV class
  • 1846: Dr. hc phil., University of Königsberg
  • 1853: appointed professor

literature

Life

  • Eduard Alberti: Lexicon of the Schleswig-Holstein-Lauenburg and Eutinian writers from 1829 to mid-1866. , Volume 2. Kiel: von Maack, 1868, p. 182, Lexicon of the Schleswig-Holstein-Lauenburg and Eutinian writers .
  • Benjamin Apthorp Gould : [Obituary] Professor AO Petersen. In: The Astronomical Journal, Volume 3, 1852-1854, number 68, p. 160, pdf .
  • Siegmund Günther:  Petersen, Adolf Cornelius . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 25, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 495 f.
  • Peter Andreas Hansen : Petersen's demise. In: Astronomische Nachrichten, Volume 38, 1854, Sp. 65-66, pdf .
  • Johann Christian Poggendorff : Biographical-literary concise dictionary for the history of the exact sciences: containing evidence of the living conditions and achievements of mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, chemists, mineralogists, geologists, etc. of all peoples and times. Volume 2: M-Z. Leipzig: Barth, 1863, p. 413, pdf .
  • Adolphus Cornelius Petersen. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 15, 1855, pp. 107-109, pdf .
  • Georg Daniel Eduard Weyer : Adolph Cornelius Petersen. In: Mittheilungen des Verein Nördlich der Elbe for the dissemination of scientific knowledge, Volume 1, 1857, S. V, pdf .

Others

  • Correspondence between Adolph Cornelius Petersen and Carl Friedrich Gauß, Gauß letter database .
  • Christian August Friedrich Peters (editor): Correspondence between CF Gauß - HC Schumacher. Altona: Esch, 1863.
  • Gerd Hoffmann; Karl-Heinz Nerkamp: Heinrich Christian Schumacher. The Altona astronomer and surveying. In: GV aktuell / Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Landesbetrieb Geoinformation und Vermessung, special issue 2009, pdf .
  • Christian Olufsen: Biographical Notes on the Deceased Conferenzrath Schumacher. Read in the Royal Danish Society of Sciences on December 19th, 1851 by Prof. Olufsen. (Translated from the December issue of the overview of the company's negotiations in 1851). In: Astronomische Nachrichten, Volume 36, 1853, Col. 393-402.
  • Christian August Friedrich Peters: The length of the simple seconds pendulum on the Güldenstein Castle, derived from the observations carried out under the direction of Schumacher by CAF Peters. In: Astronomische Nachrichten, Volume 40. 1855, Col. 1–152, here: 1–20.
  • Jochen Schramm: Stars over Hamburg: the history of astronomy in Hamburg. Hamburg: Culture and History Office, 1996.

Web links

Commons : Adolph Cornelius Petersen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. Bülderup Bau, Danish Bylderup-Bov, is located about 15 kilometers east of Tondern, Danish Tønder . Old names of the place: Wester-Bau, Vester-Bau. The place was until 1864 in the office of Tondern in the Duchy of Schleswig .
  2. #Royal Society 1855 .
  3. Astronomische Nachrichten, General Register, Vol. 1-20 , Col. 213-216.
  4. # Olufsen 1853 , col. 401-402.
  5. #Peters 1855 .
  6. # Hoffmann 2009 , pp. 23-24.
  7. #Royal Society 1855 .
  8. ^ Letter from Adolph Cornelius Petersen to Carl Friedrich Gauß, November 8, 1852, Gauß letter database .
  9. # Gauß-Schumacher 5 , pp. 183-184.
  10. Astronomische Nachrichten, General Register, Vol. 1-20 , Col. 213-216.
  11. ^ Letter from Adolph Cornelius Petersen to Carl Friedrich Gauß, June 21, 1851, Gauß letter database .
  12. ^ Letter from Adolph Cornelius Petersen to Carl Friedrich Gauß, March 29, 1854, Gauß letter database .
  13. Astronomische Nachrichten, Volume 37, 1853, Col. 411-412.
  14. # Hansen 1854 .
  15. ^ Advertisement [continuation of the Astronomical News by Christian August Friedrich Peters], 9./11. October 1854. In: Astronomische Nachrichten, Volume 39, 1854, Col. 129-130.
  16. ^ Jet Propulsion Laboratory Small-Body Database Browser.
  17. Astronomical News, Volume 34, 1852, Col. 265.
  18. # Gauß-Schumacher 5 , p. 251.
  19. # Gauß-Schumacher 5 , p. 194.
  20. #Alberti 1868 .