Arthur Auwers

Infobox Scientist |name =Arthur Auwers.jpg
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caption =Portrait of Arthur Auwers by Ernst Hildebrand, 1900.
birth_date =September 12 1838
birth_place =Göttingen
death_date =January 24 1915
death_place =Berlin
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citizenship =German
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field =astronomy
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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 son Karl von Auwers became a well known chemist and discoverer of the Auwers synthesis.

Honors

Awards
* Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1888)
* James Craig Watson Medal (1891)
* Bruce Medal (1899)
* The Auwers crater on the Moon was named after him

External links

* [http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/BruceMedalists/Auwers/index.html Bruce Medal page]
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/PASP./0011//0000061.000.html Awarding of Bruce Medal]
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0048//0000236.000.html Awarding of RAS Gold Medal]

Obituaries

* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/AN.../0200//0000109.000.html AN 200 (1915) 185/186] (in German)
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0076//0000284.000.html MNRAS 76 (1916) 284]
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/Obs../0038//0000177.000.html Obs 38 (1915) 177]

Further reading

* cite encyclopedia
last = Sticker
first = Bernhard
title = Auwers, Arthur Julius Georg Friedrich von
encyclopedia = Dictionary of Scientific Biography
volume = 1
pages = 339-340
publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons
location = New York
date = 1970
isbn = 0684101149