Arthur von Auwers

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Arthur von Auwers (1884)

Arthur Julius Georg Friedrich von Auwers (born September 12, 1838 in Göttingen , † January 24, 1915 in Groß-Lichterfelde ) was a German astronomer . In 1879 he created the first fundamental catalog , a comprehensive, absolutely oriented star catalog .

origin

Auwers was born in Göttingen as the son of the university captain Gottfried Daniel Auwers (1796–1847) and his wife Emma Christiane Sophie Borkenstein (1818–1842). His parents died very early, so he grew up with a guardian.

Live and act

He attended elementary school and grammar school in Göttingen and later the grammar school of Schulpforta in Thuringia . Already during his school days he was interested in astronomy and observes the sky. In 1854 he discovered a foggy object that was not listed in Wilhelm Herschel's catalog.

Auwers then studied astronomy at the University of Göttingen . He determined the positions of asteroids and comets , calculated their orbits and observed variable stars . He moved to the University of Königsberg and in 1859 became the assistant to the Bessel student Eduard Luther at the observatory there . With Bessel's heliometer , he determined the proper motions of stars . In 1862 he successfully completed his studies with a doctorate on the movement of the double star Prokyon . The data determined by Auwers for Prokyon and Sirius were included in the Nautical Almanac and other star catalogs.

In 1862 he married the daughter of a teacher. The couple moved to Gotha , where he took up the position of a volunteer at the Gotha observatory .

In 1866 Auwers became a full member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences and in 1878 permanent secretary to its physical-mathematical class. In 1879 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society . The American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge , Massachusetts elected him a member in 1880. From 1882 he was a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . In the same year he was elected a member of the Leopoldina Scholars' Academy . From 1881 to 1889 Auwers was chairman of the Astronomical Society .

From 1877 to 1881 Auwers was part of the board of directors of the Astrophysical Institute in Potsdam with Wilhelm Julius Foerster and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff .

When determining his position, Auwers had repeatedly found inaccuracies and errors in the star catalogs available at the time. He saw a complete overhaul as urgently needed. Over the next few years he cataloged 170,000 stars and devoted himself to the creation of a fundamental catalog in which he summarized data from the years 1753 to 1900. The work published in 1879 contained 539 stars of the northern sky (δ to –10 °) and formed the basis for exploring the structure of our Milky Way .

In addition, Auwers played a key role in the preparation and implementation of German expeditions, which were supposed to observe the passage of Venus in 1874 in Luxor and in 1882 in Punta Arenas to determine the parallax of the sun . He summarized the results in six volumes. However, due to measurement errors, the exact value of the parallax could not be determined. In 1889, from the Cape of Good Hope , together with the British astronomer David Gill , he succeeded in determining the solar parallax more precisely based on the position of the asteroid Victoria .

In personal dealings, Auwers was considered difficult. He was silent and closed.

Arthur von Auwers died in Groß-Lichterfelde in 1915 at the age of 76. His grave is on Cemetery I of the Jerusalem and New Church Congregation in Berlin-Kreuzberg (field 3/1).

family

He married the teacher's daughter Marie Henriette Jacobi (1837–1915) on November 1, 1862 in Schulpforta . The couple had three sons, including the chemist Karl Friedrich von Auwers ; the physicist Otto von Auwers was his grandson.

Honors and souvenirs

Auwers received numerous awards and honors for his achievements. He received the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) and the order Pour le Mérite . He was a member of the RAS and the Academies of Sciences (or equivalent institutions) of Paris , Vienna , Saint Petersburg , Edinburgh and Washington DC ( National Academy of Sciences ). On the occasion of his 50th anniversary of his doctorate, his sovereign raised him to hereditary nobility in 1912. An impact crater ( Auwers ) on the moon was later named in his memory .

Publications

  • Reduction of the fundamental stars on the passage instrument of the Palermo observatory in d. J. 1803-1805. Leipzig 1866.
  • Investigations into changing proper movements. Leipzig 1868.
  • The Passages of Venus in 1874 and 1882. Report on the German observations. Berlin 1887–1898.

literature

Web links

Commons : Arthur Auwers  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members of the previous academies. Arthur von Auwers. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, accessed on February 11, 2015 .
  2. ^ Entry on Auwers, Arthur (1838 - 1915) in the archives of the Royal Society , London
  3. ↑ Member entry by Arthur von Auwers (with picture) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on December 16, 2016.
  4. ↑ Member entry of Arthur von Auwers at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on May 23, 2016.
  5. ↑ The Royal Astrophysical Observatory near Potsdam. Berlin 1890, p.15
  6. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 211.
  7. ^ Walter Nissen: Göttingen memorial tablets. Göttingen 1962, p. 19.
  8. ↑ Minor Planet Circ. 60729
personal data
SURNAME Auwers, Arthur von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Auwers, Arthur Julius Georg Friedrich von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Goettingen
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1915
Place of death Groß-Lichterfelde