Oscar Monnig

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Oscar E. Monnig (born September 4, 1902 in Fort Worth , Texas ; † May 4, 1999 ibid) was an American amateur astronomer who made contributions to meteorology .

Life

Monnig came from the Mönnig family originally from the Lower Rhine region , from whom three brothers emigrated to the United States of America in the mid-19th century. He was distantly related to the lawyer and politician Hugo Mönnig and the artist Peter Mönnig .

In 1925 he received from the University of Texas a degree in law . He worked for the family's textile company and was chairman from 1974 to 1981 when it was sold. In 1941 he married Juanita Mickle, who died in 1996. The marriage remained childless.

In the 1920s, Monnig's interest in astronomy began. He founded the Texas Observers Astronomy Club, and between 1931 and 1947 he published a monthly newsletter - the Texas Observers Bulletin - specifically tailored to the interests of amateur astronomers, such as variable stars , meteors , comets and the planets .

In the late 1920s, Monnig developed an interest in meteorites and their contribution to astronomical studies on the origin of the solar system . He was a founding member of the Society for the Study of Meteorites (later renamed the Meteorological Society ).

Monnig died in his native town in 1999.

In 1984 Monnig became the first recipient of the Southwestern Region of the Astronomical League 's Texas Lone Stargazer's Award for his achievements in amateur astronomy. In 1990, he received the Pacific Astronomical Society's Amateur Achievement Award for contributions to meteorology. The asteroid (2780) Monnig in the main belt of the solar system was named in his honor.

Meteorological collection

In the early 1930s he started his own meteorological collection. After he failed to examine meteorites at the Smithsonian Institution , the Field Museum and the American Museum of Natural History , he increased his zeal for collecting.

He questioned the witnesses of meteorite detonations or bolides and organized and financed search expeditions. He paid a dollar per pound , a price at which museums in the time of the Great Depression could not keep up.

Gradually, his collection grew into one of the largest private collections in the world: it contained around 3,000 samples from 400 different meteorites. Probably the most valuable were two carbonaceous chondrites , one found in Crescent, Oklahoma , in 1936 , and the other in Bells, Texas in 1961.

Monnig later decided to donate his collection to the Christian University of Texas : between 1976 and 1986 he made a number of transfers. Today the collection contains over 1,000 different meteorites. Four years after his death, the Oscar E. Monnig Meteorite Gallery was opened in 2003 , which shows around ten percent of the meteorites to the public.

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personal data
SURNAME Monnig, Oscar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mönnig, Oscar; Monnig, Oscar E.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American businessman, amateur astronomer, and meteorologist
DATE OF BIRTH 4th September 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort Worth , Texas
DATE OF DEATH May 4, 1999
Place of death Fort Worth , Texas