Otto Wilhelm von Struve

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Otto Wilhelm von Struve

Otto Wilhelm von Struve ( Cyrillic ; born April 25 Отто Васильевич Струве jul. / 7. May  1819 greg. In Tartu , Estonia ; †  16th April 1905 in Karlsruhe ) was a Baltic German astronomer .

Life

Struve was the son of the astronomer Wilhelm Struve . When he was 15, Struve began studying astronomy at Dorpat University. During his studies he already worked as an intern with his father at the Dorpat observatory . In 1839 Struve completed his studies with a doctorate and got a job at the observatory in Pulkowo as an adjunct astronomer . During his research there, Struve discovered a new way of determining the precession constant in 1841 . In the same year he received his doctorate in astronomy from the University of St. Petersburg, in 1850 he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society .

In 1847 the General Staff of the Tsarist Army appointed Struve to be an advisory astronomer . He held this office for 15 years. As such, he directed the geodetic-astronomical work. In 1848 Struve became the second director of the observatory in Pulkowo and in 1856 he was promoted to associate professor . Two years later he was promoted to second astronomer and in 1861 to full professor .

The Russian Academy of Sciences accepted Struve as a full member in 1861. A year later, Struve succeeded his father and was director of the observatory until 1889. In 1864 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1865 to the Académie des sciences . In 1867 he was appointed chairman of the then internationally operating Astronomical Society . At the request of the academy, Struve was appointed real privy councilor in 1887. Since 1866 he was a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . In 1868 he was elected a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and in 1878 an honorary member ( Honorary Fellow ) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . Since 1883 he was a member of the National Academy of Sciences .

Otto Struve retired at the age of 71 and emigrated to Germany. He settled in Karlsruhe, where he was a member of the Corps Baltica (now Corps Baltica-Borussia Danzig zu Bielefeld) and died there at the age of 86.

Struve observed 500 new binary star systems in the northern sky. He examined Saturn and its rings, determined the mass of Neptune , and discovered an inner uranium rod . In addition, he determined the parallax of various fixed stars, made observations on the variability in the Orion Nebula and small stars distributed in it. He also made numerous observations on comets . In 1851 he proved during a solar eclipse that the protuberances belonged to the solar body. He also participated in the degree measurement , which extends over 69 degrees of longitude between Valentia Island in the south-west of Ireland and Orsk on the Asian border.

The asteroid (768) Struveana is dedicated to him together with Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve and Hermann Struve .

family

He was married twice. His first wife was Emilie Dyrssen (1823–1868), who came from a St. Petersburg merchant family, whose roots, like those of Struve, were in Holstein. Two daughters and four sons survived from this marriage, including:

After the death of his first wife, he married Emma Jankovsky (1839-1902), who came from a family of civil servants from Livonia. The couple had a daughter.

Publications

  • Overview of the activities of the Nikolai Main Observatory during the first 25 years of its existence (Petersburg, 1865)
  • Observations de Poulkowa (Pulkowo, 1869–87, 12 volumes)

literature

Web links

Commons : Otto Wilhelm von Struve  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Quarterly magazine of the Astronomical Society  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter S. Académie des sciences, accessed on March 6, 2020 (French).
  2. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 13, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Struve, Otto Wilhelm von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH Dorpat , Estonia
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 1905
Place of death Karlsruhe , Germany