Gottfried Adolf Kinau

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Organ and altar in the Kreuzkirche, Suhl

Gottfried Adolf Kinau (born January 4, 1814 in Winningen , † January 9, 1887 in Suhl ) was a German pastor and astronomer.

Kinau was born into a Protestant family of pastors and teachers. After attending the cathedral grammar school in Halberstadt between 1828 and 1833, he studied theology at the universities of Halle and Magdeburg from 1833 to 1840 . From 1840 he worked as a private tutor and assistant preacher at Marienborn , from 1845 to 1849 as a teacher at the boys' school in Schönebeck near Magdeburg. In 1849 he was appointed rector of the boys' school in Suhl and at the same time held the office of early preacher at the main church. In 1851 he took up his first pastor's position in Rohr , from which he then moved to the Kreuzkirche in Suhl in 1861. He held the parish office in Suhl until his death. In addition to his work as a pastor, he accompanied several functions in the charitable and school sector: He was chairman of the poor commission, member of the Bible Society and school council and district school inspector.

He spent practically his entire life studying astronomy in his spare time. Kinau began to observe the moon with a telescope that he had acquired in 1847 from the French royal optician masters Lerebours and Secretan in Paris. As a result he made a name for himself as a selenographer , that is, he made numerous drawings of the lunar surface, which with one exception were never published and can no longer be found. He specialized in the observation of the lunar grooves (rimae), some of which he was the first to describe.

In 1876, the English astronomer Edmund Neison (pseudonym of Edmund Neville Nevill (1849-1940)) suggested naming the moon crater Jacobi D, described in 1837 by Johann Heinrich Mädler and Wilhelm Beer , after Kinau. Its name was later forgotten. Since the beginning of April 2007 the crater officially bears his name again.

literature

  • Kinau in GA Jahn (ed.): Weekly conversations for amateurs and friends of astronomy, geography and weather studies . Volume 2, No. 25 (1848), pp. 201–204
  • JC Houzeau, A. Lancaster: Bibliographie générale de l'astronomie jusqu'en 1880 . Volume 2, column 1247
  • Gottfried Adolf Kinau: To the moon topography . In: Sirius. Journal of Popular Astronomy, Volume 10, New Series (1882), p. 19
  • Gottfried Adolf Kinau: Drawing of the moon craters Manzinus and Mutus. In: Sirius Volume 10, Issue 9 (1882), p. 217
  • Olaf Kretzer: Gottfried Adolf Kinau: A pastor from Suhl, immortalized on the moon? Stars and Space (October / 2005) p. 84 ff
  • Robert A. Garfinkel, Bernd Pfeiffer: Discovery of the real person behind the name of the lunar crater Kinau . Journal of the British Astronomical Association 117 (2007), pp. 81-849 bibcode : 2007JBAA..117 ... 81G

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kinau, Gottfried Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kinau, Adolph Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pastor and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1814
PLACE OF BIRTH Winningen
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1887
Place of death Suhl