Otto Kippes

Otto Kippes (born July 23, 1905 in Bamberg , † February 2, 1994 in Würzburg ) was a German Catholic priest and amateur astronomer .

Life

job

Kippes first attended the Augustinian Humanist High School in Münnerstadt (with a seminar), and in 1924 he passed the Abitur at the New High School in Würzburg. He then studied Catholic theology at the University of Würzburg before entering the seminary there in 1926 . In 1929 he wrote his doctoral thesis in theology on a topic from Christian social doctrine (strongly influenced by Oswald von Nell-Breuning ): "The aspirations of land reform in their relationship to Christian property doctrine" (revised, published 1933, Verlag Lassleben, Kallmütz). He was ordained a priest , also in Würzburg, on March 17, 1929.

In the course of his life he held various pastoral positions in the diocese of Würzburg : from April 1, 1929 he was a cooperator and from October 1, 1929 parish administrator (representative) in Schmerlenbach , before he worked as a chaplain in Baunach from November 1, 1929 . From November 1, 1930 he was in the meantime again parish administrator in Schmerlenbach. This was followed from November 15, 1933, the position as Expositus, later pastor in Partenstein (near Lohr am Main), before he became pastor in Glattbach (near Aschaffenburg) on February 16, 1949 . From 1966 he worked as a pastor in Reckendorf (near Bamberg) before he retired in 1975 in Würzburg.

He was particularly interested in mathematics, physics, astronomy and zoology (especially mammals). He kept statistics on his leisure activities such as traveling, foreign languages, zoological gardens and photography, including more than 300 visits to the zoo (and approx. 40 air trips). The result was over 1,300 precisely cataloged slides of animals.

Kippes never forgot his job and his calling: every day he celebrated Holy Mass - on his travels sometimes alone at a side altar of a Catholic church - and prayed his breviary several times a day . He also always had a representative at his parish when he was absent (at his own expense). Sometimes a chaplain from a neighboring larger parish, for a day or two the pastor of the neighboring village. In the event of a longer absence, a priest from a nearby monastery was often willing to look after the parish. With the growing shortage of priests from the 1960s onwards, it became more and more difficult to find parish priests. So he had to do without a long-awaited trip to Australia because the designated representative was suddenly no longer available. Therefore, he was only able to see and photograph some of the interesting marsupials in European and American zoos.

In his Sunday sermons from the 1930s onwards, the criticism of the ruling system became very clear because of his job and calling. He did not allow himself to be disturbed by an SA man who stenographed the sermon in the back of the church in Partenstein. Several times there was anger and reports to the Gestapo , as well as admonitions from his church superiors who wanted to come to terms with the politically powerful " Nazis " as much as possible. But the Gauleitung did not want to take action against a respected local pastor (at that time in the Spessart ).

astronomy

"Since 1970, an average of more than 700 tentative minor planet names have been given each year [...] The unprecedented observational activity has greatly increased the identification work, still largely carried out by Bardwell, but with contributions from Kippes, Bowell, Williams, myself himself and the Japanese amateurs Urata and Oishi. "

- Brian Marsden , Director of the Minor Planet Center from 1978 to 2006

As early as 1940, Kippes combined his interests in mathematics and astronomy: In collaboration with the Astronomical Computing Institute (ARI) in Heidelberg, he calculated orbits of minor planets . These move in elliptical orbits like the earth, but between Mars and Jupiter, and have been discovered in increasing numbers due to improved observation methods. He received the observation data via the ARI with the regular observation reports from the Astronomical Computing Institute in Cambridge, USA, the Minor Planet Center of the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA and the Coppernicus Institute Berlin-Dahlem .

A newly discovered minor planet is only given a number and a final name when its orbit is known precisely enough so that it can be found in the sky at any time - usually this is only the case after several years of observation. Initially, it is only given a provisional designation (e.g. "1940 RJ" ). In order to determine the orbit of a newly discovered minor planet, position measurements on at least three different days are necessary. It often happens, however, that not enough observations are available or that the determined orbit is too imprecise, so that the minor planet cannot be found again after the first observations. If it is not recognized at a later sighting because again no trajectory can be determined which would show the identity with the earlier observation, it is given a provisional designation this time as well (e.g. "1970 JR" ). Over time, there may be several individual sightings of the same minor planet which, taken together, would lead to the determination of an orbit if their common identity were recognized (e.g. 1940 RJ = 1950 NQ1 = 1970 JR ). Kippes mainly devoted himself to the arduous and instinctive search for these "lost" small planets. He tried to determine the identity of as many provisionally designated minor planets as possible with one another or with minor planets that had already been finally named.

For the calculations he only used a pencil and a log table . Several cigar boxes contained his card index with all known observations of provisionally named minor planets and with all known orbits. He was able to identify more than 780 minor planets. From around 1968 he used the first programmable pocket calculator from HP available (and affordable) in Germany.

His greatest success was his contribution to the recovery of the lost minor planet (155) Scylla in 1970. On November 9th, 1875, Johann Palisa had discovered a new minor planet at the Pola observatory , but after a second observation on November 23rd, 1875 he discovered it because of it The weakness of light was unable to follow suit. It was only possible to calculate a very uncertain orbit, but the minor planet was already registered under number 155 and called "Scylla" by Palisa . Scylla could not be found again because of the unsafe path and was initially lost. On October 10, 1907, Joel Metcalf observed a minor planet that was named "1907 AP" . Palisa observed AP on November 5th and 7th, 1907 , without realizing that it was "his" Scylla . CM Bardwell found in 1966 that the orbit of the minor planet in 1939 led TK near Palisa's Scylla observation, but the orbit was not accurate enough for a definitive determination. With the help of his card index, Kippes was now able to determine that 1939 TK should probably be identical with 1930 UN , 1941 HL , 1950 FL , 1950 FN and possibly with 1907 AP . On the basis of this related position data, Bardwell was able to determine the orbit of the minor planet in question with the computer “the NORC” . The calculation of the position of this minor planet for November 1875 showed that it was undoubtedly Scylla , which had been found again after 95 years.

In 1959, the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin awarded him the Leibniz Medal for his services to the identification of minor planets.

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific presented him with the "Amateur Achievement Award" in 1991 for his services as an amateur astronomer . The asteroid (1780) Kippes was named in recognition of him.

literature

• Joachim W. Ekrutt: The small planets - asteroids and their history of discovery. Kosmos Library No. 296, Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart, 1977. (Page 42 ff. “The planet hunter” with picture).
• J. Ashbrook: The story of a lost planet: 155 Scylla. Sky & Telescope, Vol. 40, pp. 361-362 (December 1970)

Web links

• Publications by O. Kippes in the Astrophysics Data System
• O. Kippes in the Minor Planet Circulars of the Minor Planet Center (from 1979)

Individual evidence

1. ^ BG Marsden: The Minor Planet Center. Celestial Mechanics, Vol. 22 (1980), No. 1, pp. 63-71, "Since 1970 the number of provisional designations of minor planets has been averaging more than 700 a year [...] The unprecedented observational activity has greatly increased the work on identifications, which is still mainly conducted by Bardwell, but with contributions from Kippes, Bowell, Williams, myself and the Japanese amateurs Urata and Oishi. "( online )
2. ↑ MPC 5033 - 1979 December. 1
3. ↑ ^{a b c} J.W. Ekrutt: The small planets. Kosmos Library Vol. 296, Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, W. Keller & Co., Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-440-00296-9
4. ^ ND archive: "New Germany" of July 3, 1959: "Leibniz Medal awarded Berlin (ADN). The German Academy of Sciences in Berlin celebrated this year's Leibniz Day on Thursday with a ceremony in which the Leibniz Medal was awarded to three personalities who do not work in scientific institutions. This year Otto Kippes, pastor in Glattbach near Aschaffenburg, received this award in recognition of his services to the identification of the small planets ... "( Online )
5. ^ N. Morrison: Otto Kippes received the Amateur Achievement Award 1991 from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Mercury, Vol. 20 (1991), No. 6, pp. 188-189 ( bibcode : 1991Mercu..20..188M )