Johann Heinrich Müller (astronomer)

Johann Heinrich Müller

Johann Heinrich Müller (born January 15, 1671 in the Nuremberg suburb of Wöhrd , † March 5, 1731 in Altdorf ) was a German astronomer .

Live and act

Johann Heinrich Müller was the son of Johann Müller, a teacher at the school in Wöhrd, and Ursula Luft. His brother Johann Christoph Müller (1673–1721) was also an astronomer and a well-traveled cartographer in Austria and Hungary.

Müller went to the Lorenz School and heard lectures there at the Egidiengymnasium . His interest in astronomy showed early on . From 1687 to 1692 he worked as an assistant to Georg Christoph Eimmart (1638–1705) at the Nuremberg observatory he founded .

Müller began his studies in Altdorf in 1692. At that time he lived in the house of Johann Christoph Sturm (1635–1703), where he also attended lectures. In 1697 he went to Giessen and two years later in 1699 to Tübingen . Another two years later, in 1701, he went back to Nuremberg. In 1728 he was accepted as a foreign member of the Royal Prussian Society of Sciences . On July 17 In 1730 he was awarded the academic nickname I. Marcus Manilius a member ( 412 Matriculation no. Of) Leopoldina selected.

In 1705 Müller became professor of physics at the grammar school in Nuremberg, and also, with the death of Georg Christoph Eimmart, head of the observatory in Nuremberg. On January 20, 1706 he married Maria Clara Eimmart (1668–1707), who had also worked as an astronomer since her youth. She died giving birth to a son who did not survive. In 1709 Müller became professor of mathematics at the University of Altdorf, where he moved in 1710 to succeed Johann Wilhelm Baier . In 1711 he married for the second time, this time Apollonia Lochner († 1755). With her he had four sons and two daughters, of whom only one son and one daughter survived. From 1711 to 1713 the second Altdorf observatory was built under Müller's guidance. In 1713 he also took over the position of director of the new observatory.

Müller gave lectures on meteorology , mathematical geography and cartography . Sámuel Mikoviny (1700–1750) was his most famous student.

Johann Heinrich Müller was an external member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences from May 5, 1728 .

Works (selection)

• Oratio de Utilissima Physicae Tractatione, dicta publice Norimbergae d. 16 Dec 1705. Cum Professionem Physices ibidum auspicaretur; Accessit Descriptio Observationibus Eclipseos Solis Totalis. 1706. d. 12. Maji in Observatorio Norico Habita, nonnullis cum Animadversiones & Corollario. Nuremberg: Christian Sigismund Froberger 1706
• Quaestio curiosa Physico-Astronomica: An Luna cingatur Atmosphaera? Altdorf: M. Daniel Meyer October 11, 1710, 20 pp.
• Dissertatio physico-astronomica de galaxia. Altdorf: M. Daniel Meyer September 30, 1713, 32 pp.
• Collegium experimentalale. Nuremberg: Wolfgang Moritz Endter 1721
• Observationes Astronomico-Physicae selectae in Specula Altorfina. Pars Prior. Altdorf: Jobst Wilhelm Kohles 1723
• Observationes Astronomico-Physicae selectae in Specula Altorfina. Pars posterior. Altdorf: Jobst Wilhelm Kohles 1723

literature

• Siegmund Günther :  Müller, Johann Heinrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 583-585.
• Johann Jakob Jantke: Ad Funus […] Domini Johannis Henrici Mulleri . Jobst Wilhelm Kohles, Altdorf 1731
• Hans Gaab: On the history of the Eimmart observatory. Special edition of the Regiomontanus messenger . Nuremberg, March 2005, pp. 44, 54-58
• Müller, Johann Heinrich . In: Werner Hartkopf:The Berlin Academy of Sciences. Its members and award winners 1700–1990. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1992,ISBN 3-05-002153-5, p. 252.
• Georg Andreas Will : Nürnbergisches Gelehrten-Lexicon, or description of all Nuremberg scholars beyderley sex according to your life, merit and writings, to expand the history of the learned and improve many errors that have occurred in it from the best sources in alphabetical order. Verlag Lorenz Schüpfel, Nuremberg and Altdorf, 1556, 2nd volume, p. 660, ( online )

Web links

• Article by Dr. Antal András Deák on Müller's most important student ( memento from June 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Member entry of Johann Heinrich Müller at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina