Using personal documents and files from the archives mainly of the University of Heidelberg, this paper describes the uncommon and rocky path of the young amateur astronomer Max Wolf (1863-1932) to enter the scientific community of established astronomers. He had been equipped by his father, a physician in Heidelberg, with quite sophisticated small telescopes that were initially used by both of them. Because of a sporting accident during his military service, Wolf was unable to carry out regular studies in astronomy intended at the German university of Strasbourg with Wilhelm Schur. Tied to his home, the basic courses of natural sciences at the Heidelberg university were only sporadically accomplished, and so was the main study of mathematics, primarily with Leo Königsberger, who made celestial mechanics as link to astronomy accessible to him, in particular perturbation theory of planetoids (obtaining his doctorate at the end of 1888, applying for membership of Astronomische Gesellschaft at the beginning of 1889). To get a deeper understanding, the self-taught astronomer then went to Hugo Gyldén at the Stockholm Academy observatory for nearly a year (the trip was often postponed due to his illness) and worked out, under his instruction, the habilitation thesis which he defended at Heidelberg in July 1890. At the beginning of 1893 he got his first paid lectureship and became extraordinary professor, in a tenured appointment starting with 1896, by which Wolf for the first time stood on his own feet, for the time being as an astronomer with a modest private observatory.
...More
Article
Dietrich Lemke;
(2018)
Verständliche Astronomie aus Heidelberg - Von Max Wolfs Himmelsbildern zum Haus der Astronomie
(/isis/citation/CBB902725342/)
Article
Martin Connors;
(2024)
The discovery and naming of Trojan asteroids
(/isis/citation/CBB700468449/)
Book
Omar W. Nasim;
(2021)
The Astronomer's Chair: A Visual and Cultural History
(/isis/citation/CBB157841526/)
Book
Wilhelm Brüggenthies;
Wolfgang R. Dick;
(2017)
Biographischer Index der Astronomie / Biographical Index of Astronomy
(/isis/citation/CBB829527387/)
Book
Schwemin Friedhelm;
(2022)
Johann Elert Bode (1747–1826), der Astronom der Berliner Aufklärung: Leben und Werk in dokumentarischer Darstellung
(/isis/citation/CBB475929139/)
Book
Ashley Jean Yeager;
(2021)
Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter, and Beyond: The Life of Astronomer Vera Rubin
(/isis/citation/CBB215194288/)
Book
Mittler, Elmar;
Glitsch, Silke;
(2005)
“Wie der Blitz einschlägt, hat sich das Räthsel gelöst”: Carl Friedrich Gauß in Göttingen
(/isis/citation/CBB001232255/)
Book
Tamara Plakins Thornton;
(2016)
Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers: How a Nineteenth-Century Man of Business, Science, and the Sea Changed American Life
(/isis/citation/CBB293511565/)
Book
Dr Emily Winterburn;
(2018)
The Quiet Revolution of Caroline Herschel: The Lost Heroine of Astronomy
(/isis/citation/CBB492810255/)
Book
Pedro M. P. Raposo;
(2019)
O Gigante da Tapada – Campos Rodrigues (1836-1919) e o Observatório Astronómico de Lisboa
(/isis/citation/CBB603583885/)
Article
Carlos Viscasillas Vázquez;
Ederlinda Viñuales Gavín;
Adriana De La Calle Viscasillas;
Ricardo Moreno Luquero;
(2023)
The scientific books and astronomical inventions of the Jesuit astronomer Dr. Emmanuel Carreira
(/isis/citation/CBB658912165/)
Article
Peter Anderson;
Wayne Orchiston;
(2023)
Arthur Anthony Page: At the Forefront of Queensland Astronomy during the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB437538036/)
Book
B. S. Shylaja;
(2012)
Chintamani Ragoonatha Charry and Contemporary Indian Astronomy
(/isis/citation/CBB874699887/)
Article
Friedhelm Schwemin;
(2011)
Ferdinand Adolph Freiherr von Ende (1760-1816) - Ecksteine zu seiner BiographieFerdinand Adolph Freiherr von Ende (1760-1816) - Ecksteine zu seiner BiographieFerdinand Adolph Freiherr von Ende (1760-1816) - cornerstones for his biography.
(/isis/citation/CBB010463485/)
Article
Marco Arturo Moreno Corral;
William J. Schuster;
(2020)
The Mexican astrographic catalogue and Carte du Ciel Project
(/isis/citation/CBB455645836/)
Article
James Lequeux;
(2022)
Life at Meudon Observatory, 1876-1963
(/isis/citation/CBB513296623/)
Book
Abraham A. Fraenkel;
Jiska Cohen-Mansfield;
(2016)
Recollections of a Jewish Mathematician in Germany
(/isis/citation/CBB183839098/)
Chapter
Lothane, Zvi;
(2005)
Daniel Paul Shreber on His Own Terms, Or How Interpretive Fictions are Converted into Historical Facts
(/isis/citation/CBB001021728/)
Article
Martin Schneider;
(2022)
Alfred Wegener und die Kontinentaldrift. Geologie im Übergang zwischen Kontraktionslehre und Plattentektonik (Alfred Wegener and continental drift. Geology in the transition between contraction theory and plate tectonics)
(/isis/citation/CBB362475516/)
Article
Martin Schneider;
(2022)
Alfred Wegener und die Kontinentaldrift. Geologie im Übergang zwischen Kontraktionslehre und Plattentektonik (Teil II) (Alfred Wegener and continental drift. Geology in the transition between contraction theory and plate tectonics (Part II))
(/isis/citation/CBB880951516/)
Be the first to comment!