Beer, Wilhelm Wolff (1797–1850)
Berlin banker and brother of the composer Meyerbeer, who set up a private
observatory equipped with a 9.5-centimeter refractor. In collaboration with
Johann H. Mädler, he produced, in 1830,
the first accurate map of the Moon (Mappa
Selenographica) and a companion descriptive volume (Der Mond),
describing the surface features. These showed the Moon to be a world very
unlike the Earth and contradicted the pro-selenite
claims of Gruithuisen and William Herschel
(see life on the Moon). Beer and Mädler's
map remained the best available for several decades and helped persuade
most professional astronomers that the Moon is uninhabited. The two also
collaborated in the production of the first systematic chart of the surface
of Mars.
Related category
• ASTRONOMERS
AND ASTROPHYSICISTS
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