Konradin Ferrari d'Occhieppo

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Konradin Ferrari d'Occhieppo (born December 9, 1907 in Leibnitz , Styria , † March 18, 2007 in Heiterwang , Tyrol ) was an Austrian astronomer and was known to the public primarily through his publications on the “Star of the Wise” (or “ Star of Bethlehem ") known.

Life

Konradin Constantin Hubert Marquard Eugen Josef Maria Georg Graf Ferrari d'Occhieppo was born in 1907 as the eldest son of the lawyer Marquard Ferrari d'Occhieppo and his wife Emma, ​​born in the Styrian state government. von Jagemann, born. However, the family soon moved to live with relatives in Würzburg . After the First World War, the family was impoverished. Konradin was initially supposed to be a carpenter and then, due to his talent for ancient languages, an apprenticeship in the book trade. After the death of his father in 1925 he was able to finish high school thanks to a private scholarship.

He then studied under Josef Hopmann in Bonn and Leipzig and received his doctorate summa cum laude in 1934 with a dissertation on the fluctuations in the period of eclipse in Algol and its possible causes . His doctorate followed for a short time as an assistant to Ernst Zinner at the Remeis observatory in Bamberg , where he was denounced by the NSDAP because of Catholic youth activities and was no longer allowed to be employed as an Austrian. A free assistant position led him to the University Observatory Vienna , where he was responsible for the astronomical internship and the photometric monitoring of variable stars. His contract was not renewed there either, but he was allowed to keep his official residence and continued to do theoretical work. From 1939 to 1940 he was director of the Urania observatory in Vienna , where he had previously worked. Then he was drafted into military service by the Wehrmacht, which he survived with a shrapnel in his leg.

In 1945 he returned to Vienna and one year later became Adalbert Prey's assistant . In 1949 he completed his habilitation with a thesis on the celestial mechanical investigation of the hypothetical masses D and E in the Algol system and five years later he was appointed to the re-established chair for theoretical astronomy as an associate professor , where he was full professor from 1963 to 1978. After his retirement , Ferrari first moved to Innsbruck , then to Reutte . He continued his research topics intensively, especially on astronomical chronology and ancient astronomy.

Services

Ferrari published numerous specialist publications in particular in the areas of celestial mechanics , the theory of variable stars , stellar statistics and the structure of the Milky Way arms and created computer-aided star evolution models . The history of astronomy was particularly close to his heart, to which he devoted himself in research and teaching. His research on the star of Bethlehem, which he created as a triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC, became known to a wider public . Chr. Indicated.

Honors

Ferrari was elected a corresponding member in Germany in 1962 and a real member of the mathematical and natural science class of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 1971 .

On the occasion of his 90th birthday, the asteroid (7146) Konradin was named after him.

Fonts

In addition to numerous specialist publications on theoretical astronomy, Ferrari also wrote several books, including

  • Astronomy, 1950
  • Customer from space, 1952
  • The Philosopher's Star, 1969
  • The star of Bethlehem from an astronomical point of view, 1991.

Ferrari dedicated the latter book (as it was called in professional circles) to the academician and researcher of ancient astronomy, Otto Neugebauer (1899–1990).

Among many specialist articles, the following are mentioned:

literature

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ^ Wilhelm Brüggenthies, Wolfgang R. Dick: Biographischer Index der Astronomie / Biographical Index of Astronomy. Acta Historica Astronomiae, Volume 26, Frankfurt am Main 2005. ISBN 3-8171-1769-8 . P. 170
  2. ↑ One of his students dedicated an extensive work to Ferrari - on his 80th birthday: Franz Stuhlhofer : Wages and Punishment in Science. Natural scientist in the judgment of history (Perspectives on the history of science; 4). Vienna u. a. 1987.
  3. ↑ (7146 Konradin) in the JPL Small-Body Database Browser
personal data
SURNAME Ferrari d'Occhieppo, Konradin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Leibnitz , Styria
DATE OF DEATH March 18, 2007
Place of death Heiterwang , Tyrol