Struve, Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von (1793–1864)
German astronomer, who was an expert on double stars and one of the first
astronomers to measure stellar parallax;
he was also the patriarch of a dynasty of famous astronomers that spanned
four generations. Born in Altona, Schleswig-Holstein, he fled to Dorpat
(now Tartu) in Estonia in 1808, to avoid conscription into the German army.
In 1810 he graduated from the University of Dorpat and from 1817 on he served
as Director of the Dorpat Observatory. In 1822 he published the first of
many double-star catalogues, the identifying numbers of which are still
used today. Struve's stars, however, are now often named in his honor (for
example, Struve 2398), whereas the original
catalogue prefix was the Greek letter sigma. In 1833 he moved to Russia
to set up the Pulkovo Observatory near St. Petersburg, of which he was director
until his retirement in 1862, when his took over in the post. In total,
Friedruch Struve produced 272 astronomical works and 18 children; his great-grandson
Otto, by contrast, produced 907 works but zero
children.
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• ASTRONOMERS
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