- Hugo von Seeliger
Hugo von Seeliger (1849 - 1924), also known as Hugo Hans Ritter von Seeliger, was a German astronomer, often considered the most important astronomer of his day.
He was born in
Austria , completed high school in Teschen in 1867, andstudied at the Universities of Heidelberg and Leipzig. He earned a doctorate in astronomy in 1872 from the latter, studying underCarl Christian Bruhns . He was on the staff of theUniversity of Bonn Observatory until 1877, as an assistant toFriedrich Wilhelm Argelander . In 1874, he directed the German expedition to theAuckland Islands to observe thetransit of Venus . In 1881, he became the Director of theGotha Observatory , and in 1882 became a Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Observatory at theUniversity of Munich , which post he held until his death. His students includedHans Kienle ,Ernst Anding ,Julius Bauschinger ,Paul ten Bruggencate ,Gustav Herglotz ,Richard Schorr , and especiallyKarl Schwarzschild , who earned a doctorate under him in 1898, and acknowledged Seeliger's influence in speeches throughout his career.He was elected an Associate of the
Royal Astronomical Society in 1892, and President of theAstronomische Gesellschaft from 1897 to 1921. He received numerous honours and medals, including knighthood ("Ritter"), between 1896 and 1917.His contributions to astronomy include an explanation of the anomalous motion of the perihelion of Mercury (later one of the main
tests of general relativity ), a theory ofnovae coming from the collision of a star with a cloud of gas, and his confirmation ofJames Clerk Maxwell 's theories of the composition of therings of Saturn by studying variations in their albedo. However his main interest was in the stellar statistics of theBonner Durchmusterung and Bonn section of the Astronomische Gesellschaft star catalogues, and in the conclusions these led about the structure of the universe. His views about the dimensions of our galaxy were consistent withJacobus Kapteyn 's later studies.He continued his work until his death, on
December 2 , 1924, aged 75.Thelunar crater Seeliger was named after him.Also theSeeliger Effect was named after him.References
* [http://litten.de/fulltext/seeliger.htm Freddy Litten:Hugo von Seeliger -- Kurzbiographie] Short biography (in German).
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1925Obs....48...77.&db_key=AST&data_type=HTML&format= Obituary: Professor Hugo von Seeliger] Scan from "The Observatory", Vol. 48, p. 77-77 (1925), presented by Smithsonian/NASA ADS Astronomy Abstract Service
* [http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/html/id.phtml?id=61848 Hugo Hans von Seeliger] Students, from the Mathematics Genealogy Project
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