Resolute and Undertaking Characters: The Lives of Wilhelm and Otto Struve
Alan H. Batten (Author)
Wilhelm Struve founded a dynasty of astronomers that lasted into the fifth generation. This book follows the fortunes of the first three generations: Wilhelm himself was an outstanding astronomer and geodesist, famous for his pioneering observations of double stars - observations whose quality had not been surpassed until the development of modern methods of instrumental observational analysis. He is also well known as one of the three men who - almost simultaneously - succeeded in measuring the distance to one of the fixed stars. He founded the great observatory of Pulkovo, just outside modern Leningrad, and was succeeded as Director of the institution by his son Otto, who forms the subject of the second part of the book. Otto, too, was a famous observer of double stars and a great practitioner of the fundamental astronomy of the nineteenth century
History
1 online resource (XXV, 259 pages)
9789400928831, 9400928831
1058114392
Available in another form:
1: Family Origins and Wilhelm's Childhood
2: Student Days at Dorpat University
3: Astronomy at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century
4: Measuring the Earth
5: The Great Refractor
6: The Founding of Pulkovo
7: The Astronomical Capital of the World
8: Measuring the Sky
9: The Early Pulkovo Years
10: "Etudes d'astronomie stellaire"
11: Wilhelm's Illness and Last Years
12: The Transition
13: The Companion of Procyon and the Transits of Venus
14: The 30-Inch Refractor
15: Mapping the Sky
16: Otto's Retirement and Last Years
Epilogue: The Family Tradition
Name Index
English