Anton Thraen

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Anton Thraen

Carl Anton Thraen (born January 17, 1843 in Holungen (Thuringia), † December 18, 1902 in Dingelstädt ) was a German Catholic priest and amateur astronomer . The main belt asteroid (4098) Thraen was named after him in 1989 .

Life

He was born on January 17th, 1843 in Holungen, the sixth child of Josef Johann Thraen and Elisabeth, née. Rhode. His mother died in 1846. After primary school in Holungen, Anton graduated from high school in Heiligenstadt in 1863 and then studied theology at the universities of Münster (1863–1866) and Paderborn (1866–1868). In Münster he also took mathematical and astronomical lectures and helped out in the observatory.

He was ordained a priest in 1868 by the confessing bishop Konrad Martin , followed by three years of chaplaincy in the parish of St. Marien in Niederorschel (1871–1873) and others in St. Gertrud in Dingelstädt . From 1883 until his death he worked there as a pastor. Because there was a great shortage of priests at the time, he had a difficult job in pastoral care, but contributed selflessly to the expansion of the hospital and the parish church of Dingelstädt through charitable collections .

Activity as an astronomer

In the evening and night he often observed the starry sky with his telescope. In addition, he made many contributions to the orbit determination of comets and asteroids , which were published in international journals. Even after his blindness in his left eye, he continued this work. His exact orbital calculations enabled further observations of the respective celestial bodies, and the publications in the " Astronomische Nachrichten " were recognized by colleagues.

Among other things, he closely observed the short-period comet Wolf : 1884-1885 he contributed 950 observations, 1891-1892 also 681 observations, from which he was finally able to accurately predict the third return of this comet . For Comet 1886 II he received a hyperbola orbit with the eccentricity of 1,000229, after backward calculation of the orbital disturbances by Jupiter and Saturn, however, 1,000177 for August 15, 1884, 1.000052 for April 23, 1883 and October 5, 1882 1.000002, from which he derived an elongated ellipse that originally belonged to the solar system.

Thraen also calculated the orbital parameters and ephemeris of the minor planets 442 and 443 . 442 was finally given the name "Eichsfeldia" by the Heidelberg professor Max Wolf on the basis of Thraen's suggestion, especially since Thraen had calculated its orbital disturbances through the large planets.

The State of Prussia honored the astronomer priest in 1900 with the award of the Red Eagle Order, IV class. Even before that, the successful astronomer enthusiast received letters of appreciation from many world-renowned scientists. It was not until 1902 that he personally met many of these astronomers at the Göttingen Conference of the Astronomical Society , with whom he only had contact by letter for years. In August of the same year an incurable disease threw him on the sickbed. He died of his stomach ailment on December 18, 1902.

Aftermath

In 1956, a plaque of honor was attached to Thraen's parents' house in Holungen. The town of Dingelstädt and the home community of Holungen each named a street after him.
In 1989, Freimut Börngen from the Karl Schwarzschild Observatory Tautenberg suggested, following J. Dorschner's advice, to name the newly discovered Tautenburg planetoid No. 4098 with the name of the Dingelstadt pastor and astronomer. The main belt asteroid (4098) Thraen has a diameter of about 9 km.

literature

  • G. Stracke: Anton Thraen , in: Mitteldeutsche Lebensbilder, 1st volume Lebensbilder des 19. Jahrhundert, Magdeburg 1926, pp. 390–396
  • Johann Dorschner: Life and work of the Eichsfeld astronomer Anton Thraen (1843-1902) . In:
    • Die Sterne , Volume 61 (1985), Issue 4, pp. 209-227.
    • Kulturbund der DDR, Kreiskabinett Worbis (ed.): Eichsfelder Heimathefte, Heft 4, Heiligenstadt 1986, pp. 319–339.
  • Gerhard Conrad: On the 175th birthday of Eichsfeld pastor and astronomer Anton Thraen (1843–1902). In: Eichsfelder Heimatzeitschrift. 62nd year, issue 3/4, pages 94-102

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yearbook of Natural History 1912, cited. by F. Neureuter 1914 [1]
  2. ↑ MPC


personal data
SURNAME Thraen, Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Holungen
DATE OF DEATH December 18, 1902
Place of death Dingelstädt