Argelander, Friedrich Wilhelm August |
| ASTRONOMER (GERMANY) |
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BORN 22 Mar 1799, Memel (now: Klaipeda, Lithuania) - DIED 17 Feb 1875, Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen GRAVE LOCATION Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen: Alter Friedhof (Abteilung IIIa, Grabnummer 144-145) |
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Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander was born in Memel in Prussia, now known as Kaipeda in Luthuania. He studied with Friedrich Bessel at the observatory in Königsberg where he obtained his Ph. D in 1822. From 1823 to 1837 he was the director of the Finnish observatory in Turku and, after it burnt down in 1827, in a new observatory in Helsinki that was completed in 1832. In 1836 he moved to Bonn to become professor of Astronomy. He knew king Friedrich Wilhelm IV from his childhood, when his family had sheltered him during the Napoleontic Wars. They were still close friends and now the king enabled him to build a new observatory in Bonn. In Bonn he studied variable stars and he created a system for their identification. Witt Albert Krüger and Eduard Schönfeld he created the Bonner Durchmusterung, a star catalogue that was published between 1852 and 1859. In 1863 he was a founding member of the Astronomische Gesellschaft. He received many prizes and awards before he died in Bonn in 1875. |
| Images |
 The grave of Friedrich Argelander at the Alter Friedhof, Bonn. Picture by Androom (17 Jun 2012) |
