Franz Friedrich Ernst Brünnow (18 November 1821 – 20 August 1891) was a Germanastronomer.[1]
He was the first foreigner to become director of an Americanobservatory, serving as director ofDetroit Observatory (at theUniversity of Michigan) from 1854 to 1863. He played a major role in establishing the study ofastronomy in theUnited States at a time when the only other serious faculty was run byBenjamin Peirce atHarvard University. He introduced the teaching of rigorous German analytical methods and trained a number of students who went on to further American astronomy, includingAsaph Hall andJames Craig Watson (the latter succeeded him as director of Detroit Observatory). In addition,Charles Augustus Young learned German astronomical methods from Brünnow although he did not attend theUniversity of Michigan.
He succeededWilliam R Hamilton asAndrews Professor of Astronomy atTrinity College Dublin andRoyal Astronomer of Ireland atDunsink Observatory.
Brünnow was born inBerlin to Johann and Wilhelmine (née Weppler)[1]and attended theFriedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium. In 1839 he entered theUniversity of Berlin, where he studied mathematics, astronomy and physics, as well as chemistry, philosophy and philology. After graduating asPhD in 1843 he took an active part in astronomical work at theBerlin Observatory, under the direction ofJohann Franz Encke, contributing numerous important papers on the orbits ofcomets and minorplanets to theAstronomische Nachrichten.[2]
In 1847 he was appointed director of theBilk Observatory, nearDüsseldorf, and in the following year published the well-knownMémoire sur la comète elliptique de De Vico, for which he received the gold medal of the Amsterdam Academy. In 1851 he succeededJohann Gottfried Galle as first assistant at theBerlin Observatory.[2] Also in 1851 he wrote the textbookLehrbuch der Sphärischen Astronomie, which he translated to English himself in 1865 asHandbook of Spherical Astronomy.
He was recruited byUniversity of Michigan presidentHenry Tappan and came toAnn Arbor in 1854 where he accepted the post of director of the new observatory (theDetroit Observatory). Some say he came to America to escape marrying Encke's daughter. In the US he published, from 1858 to 1862, a journal entitledAstronomical Notices, while his tables of the minor planetsFlora,Victoria andIris were severally issued in 1857, 1859 and 1869. He married Tappan's daughter Rebecca in 1857. In 1860 he went, as associate director of the observatory, toAlbany, New York; but returned in 1861 toMichigan, and threw himself with vigour into the work of studying the astronomical andphysical constants of the observatory and its instruments.[2]
He resigned in 1863 as a direct result of the dismissal of Tappan by the university's regents and returned toGermany. Then, on the death of SirWilliam Rowan Hamilton in 1865, he accepted the post ofAndrews Professor of Astronomy atTrinity College Dublin andRoyal Astronomer of Ireland. His first undertaking at theDublin Observatory was the erection of anequatorial telescope to carry the fine object-glass presented to the university bySir James South; and on its completion, he began an important series of researches onstellar parallax. The first, second and third parts of theAstronomical Observations and Researches made atDunsink contain the results of these labours, and include discussions of the distances of the starsα Lyrae,ο Draconis,Groombridge 1830,85 Pegasi, andBradley 3077, and of theplanetary nebula H. iv. 37. In 1873 the observatory, on Brünnow's recommendation, was provided with a first-classtransit circle, which he proceeded to test as a preliminary to commencing an extended program of work with it. However, in 1874, as a result of failing health and eyesight, he resigned and retired toBasel. In 1880 he moved toVevey, and in 1889 toHeidelberg, where he died on 20 August 1891.[2] His headstone still stands in theBergfriedhof, the old cemetery in Heidelberg.
The permanence of his reputation was secured by the merits of hisLehrbuch der sphärischen Astronomie, which were at once and widely appreciated. In 1860 part 1 was translated into English byRobert Main, the Radcliffe observer atOxford; Brünnow himself published an English version in 1865; it reached in the original a fifth edition in 1881, and was also translated into French, Russian, Italian and Spanish.[2]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Brünnow, Franz Friedrich Ernst".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 685. | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(February 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
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