Article ID: CBB019108447

Max Wolfs Eintritt in die scientific community der Astronomen (2018)

unapi

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.

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Authors & Contributors
Martin Schneider
Carlos Viscasillas Vázquez
Thornton, Tamara Plakins
Ricardo Moreno Luquero
Ashley Jean Yeager
Lemke, Dietrich
Concepts
Biographies
Astronomers
Astronomy
Scientific communities; interprofessional relations
Photography, astronomical
Diaries
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
18th century
21st century
20th century, early
Places
Germany
Queensland (Australia)
Greenland
Leipzig (Germany)
Spain
Portugal
Institutions
Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
Astronomical Society of Australia
Observatório Astronómico de Lisboa
Observatoire de Paris
Madras Observatory
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
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