Arthur Auwers
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| Arthur Auwers.jpg | |
 Portrait of Arthur Auwers by Ernst Hildebrand, 1900.
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| Born | September 12, 1838 Göttingen |
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| Died | January 24, 1915 Berlin |
| Citizenship | German |
| Fields | astronomy |
Georg Friedrich Julius Arthur von Auwers (September 12, 1838 – January 24, 1915) was a German astronomer.
Auwers was born in Göttingen, attended the University of Göttingen and worked at the University of Königsberg. He specialized in astrometry, making very precise measurements of stellar positions and motions. He detected the companion stars of Sirius and Procyon from their effects on the main star's motion, before telescopes were powerful enough to visually observe them. He was from 1866 Secretary to the Berlin Academy, and directed expeditions to measure the transits of Venus, in order to measure the distance from the earth to the Sun more accurately, and therefore be able to more accurately calculate the dimensions of the Solar System with greater precisions. He began a project to unify the all available sky charts, an interest that began with his catalog of nebulae which he published in 1862. He died in Berlin. His grave is preserved in the Protestant Friedhof I der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde (Cemetery No. I of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church and New Church) in Berlin-Kreuzberg, south of Hallesches Tor.
His son Karl von Auwers became a well known chemist and discoverer of the Auwers synthesis.
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[edit] Honors
Awards
- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1888)
- James Craig Watson Medal (1891)
- Bruce Medal (1899)
- The crater Auwers on the Moon is named after him
[edit] External links
[edit] Obituaries
[edit] Further reading
- Sticker, Bernhard (1970). "Auwers, Arthur Julius Georg Friedrich von". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 339-340. ISBN 0684101149.
