Maximilian Hell

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Maximilian Hell (born May 15, 1720 in Schemnitz , † April 14, 1792 in Vienna ) was an Austrian Jesuit and astronomer .

Observatio transitus Veneris ante discum Solis by Maximilian Hell (1770)

Live and act

Hell joined the Jesuits in 1738 and studied mathematics and philosophy at the University of Vienna . From 1745 he assisted the astronomer Joseph Franz (1704–1776), from 1746 to 1747 he worked as a teacher in Leutschau. He then studied theology in Vienna and was ordained a priest in 1752 . He then worked as a teacher in Cluj-Napoca , where he was also given the task of building an observatory . Hell was the successor to the court astronomer Johann Jakob Marinoni (1676–1755) from 1755 director of the Vienna University Observatory . From 1758 he was a member of the Académie des Sciences in Paris. In 1774 he was elected a foreign member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

Hell published the astronomical tables "Ephemerides astronomicae ad meridianum Vindobonensem" , a work in 37 volumes in which the ephemeris for the years 1757 to 1792 were published.

In Vardø (Northern Norway ) he observed the passage of Venus in 1769 at the invitation of the Danish King Christian VII . From the worldwide collected observations of the Venus transits of 1761 and 1769, Hell calculated the distance between the sun and earth to be 152 million kilometers (modern value 149.6 million kilometers). There are two memorial plaques for him in Vardø. The observatory that Hell built there no longer exists. In Austria Hell was accused of fraud in his calculation, but a hundred years after his death the distance he calculated between the sun and earth was confirmed.

Hell was buried in Maria Enzersdorf in Lower Austria.

His brother Jozef Karol Hell (1713–1789) invented a new type of water pump in 1755.

Appreciation

Bust at the Maria Enzersdofer romantic cemetery

In 1773 Franz Messmer and Jakob Kohl completed the painting, which shows Emperor Franz I Stephan of Lorraine with his scientific advisors, which was commissioned by Maria Theresa after his death and has been exhibited in the Natural History Museum Vienna on the grand staircase since 1889 . During an examination of the painting in 1992 it was found that the picture had been painted over several times, removing three people from the picture. In 2013 it was found that one of the overpainted was Maximilian Hell, who was originally supposed to be standing next to Johann Ritter von Baillou in the picture .

In 1894 Hellgasse was named after him in Vienna- Ottakring (16th district) . In 2010 a bust of him was placed at the Maria Enzersdorfer Friedhof after he was buried here, but the grave had already fallen victim to the 19th century and was re-occupied.

The moon crater Hell is named after him. The Museum of the University Observatory Vienna has been called the “Astronomical Display Collection 'Maximilian Hell'” since 2012.

literature

Web links

Commons : Maximilian Hell  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter H. Académie des sciences, accessed on November 26, 2019 (French).
  2. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 109.
  3. ↑ see also his work Supplementum dissertationis De parallaxi solis. A rp Maximiliano Hell, e SJ (1773, digitized online )
  4. ↑ a b Niederösterreichische Nachrichten week 25/2010
  5. ↑ Das Phantom des Naturhistorisches Museum , in: Der Standard daily newspaper , Vienna, October 8, 2014, p. 13
personal data
SURNAME Hell, Maximilian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian astronomer and Jesuit
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1720
PLACE OF BIRTH Schemnitz
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 1792
Place of death Vienna