Alois Purgathofer (18 February 1925 – 13 March 1984), was an Austrian astronomer at theVienna Observatory from 1954 to 1984. He mainly worked on thephotometry of galacticstar clusters, but also on theasteroid51 Nemausa. In 1969 theLeopold Figl observatory was built on theMitterschöpfl mountain under his technical and astronomical advice, containing a 1.5 mRitchey–Chrétien telescope. His knowledge of astronomical instruments was legendary, especially of optical and electronic devices and of image converters. He died unexpectedly on 13 March 1984 during a business trip to theCalar Alto Observatory inAlmería, Spain.
In his honour Rudolf Pressberger named his self built observatory in Klosterneuburg-Kierling “Purgathofer-Sternwarte”, and also theasteroid 5341 was named “Purgathofer”.
| International | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
