Josef Langer (astronomer)

Josef Langer (* December 25, 1650 in Landskron ; † March 19, 1711 in Leitomischl ) was a German-born scientist of the Piarists , mathematician and astronomer .

Life

He joined the Piarists in 1668 and took the religious name Athanasius . He taught mathematics and general sciences at various high schools. In addition, he was interested in astronomy.

On the basis of his observations, Langer created panels on the movements of the sun , moon and the planets Mars , Jupiter and Saturn , but also dealt with questions of solar and lunar eclipses . He sent his calculations to the General Order in Rome , where they met with little approval because they contradicted one of the Church's most important dogmas, the Easter celebrations. Because of these disputes, he designed a reformed calendar, which was valid until the year 3000.

His most important student, who also continued his work, was Stanislav z Častolovic .

Works

Some manuscripts about his astronomical observations have been preserved.

• Theoria motuum Solis et Lunae.
• Methodus resolvendi quaevis triangula tam plana quam Sphaerica in ordine ad supputandos motus.

literature

• Metoděj Zemek, Jan Bombera, Aleš Filip, Pavel Kollar: Piaristé v Čechách, na Moravě a ve Slezsku 1631 až 1950. Scholae piae Prievidza. TEXTM pre Kolégium piaristů Prievidzi, Prievidza 1992, ISBN 80-85716-02-X ( Czech ).
• Karl AF Fischer: Directory of the piarists of the German and Bohemian order province. Catalogus generalis provinciae Germanicae et Bohemicae ordinis scholarum Piarum. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-486-51111-4 .
• LONG Josef. in: Kdo byl kdo v našich dějinách do roku 1918. Nakladatelstvi libri, Prague 1996, ISBN 80-85983-06-0 (Czech "Who is who" before 1918 - source for the WP article)