- Matvei Gusev
Matvey Matveyevich Gusev ( _ru. Матвей Матвеевич Гусев) (OldStyleDate|November 28|1826|November 16 in Vyatka,
Russia –OldStyleDate|April 22|1866|April 10 inBerlin ,Germany ) was aRussia n astronomer who worked atPulkovo Observatory near St. Petersburg from 1850 to 1852 and then atVilnius Observatory (which he established at the University ofVilnius ) thereafter.In 1860 he founded the first scientific journal dedicated to math and physics in Russia: "Vestnik matematicheskikh nauk" ( _ru. Вестник математических наук). He became the director of the Vilnius Observatory in 1865.
He was first to prove the non-sphericity of the
Moon , concluding in 1860 that it is elongated in the direction of theEarth . [Great Soviet Encyclopedia article on [http://slovari.yandex.ru/dict/bse/article/00021/20000.htm Gusev] ] He is considered one of the pioneers in using photography in astronomy, having taken pictures of the moon and the sun - includingsunspot s - while at the Vilnius observatory.He died in
Berlin ,Germany in 1866. A major crater on Mars is namedGusev crater after him, and it is famed as the landing site of the Mars Exploration Rover "Spirit".References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.