Carl Ernst Albrecht Hartwig (14 January 1851 in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

– 3 May 1923 in

Bamberg Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia district in Bavaria, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main (river), Main. Bamberg had 79,000 inhabitants in ...

) was a German

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

. On 20 August 1885, Hartwig discovered a new star, SN 1885A (S Andromedae), in the

Andromeda Galaxy The Andromeda Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy and is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. It was originally named the Andromeda Nebula and is cataloged as Messier 31, M31, and NGC 224. Andromeda has a Galaxy#Isophotal diameter, D25 isop ...

, which was the first

supernova A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion ...

that was ever seen that was outside the Milky Way. He is also credited for the discovery and co-discovery of three parabolic and hyperbolic comets, namely C/1879 Q2, C/1880 S1 and C/1886 T1. In 1882, Hartwig observed the

transit of Venus A transit of Venus takes place when Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth (or any other superior planet), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Venus is visible as ...

in Argentina. During the 1883 observation campaign of comet 6P/d'Arrest he found five

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objects working at the Strasbourg Observatory. In 1874 he became assistant at the Observatory of Strasbourg, 1884 astronomer at Dorpat Observatory and 1887 director of the Remeis Observatory at Bamberg. The

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

awarded him the

Valz Prize The Valz Prize ''(Prix Valz)'' was awarded by the French Academy of Sciences, from 1877 through 1970, to honor advances in astronomy. History The Valz Prize was established in June 1874 when the widow of astronomer Benjamin Valz, Marie Madeleine ...

in 1902 for his

heliometer A heliometer (from Greek ἥλιος ''hḗlios'' "sun" and ''measure'') is an instrument originally designed for measuring the variation of the Sun's diameter at different seasons of the year, but applied now to the modern form of the instrumen ...

observations and work on

variable stars A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes systematically with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are ...

. Lunar

crater A crater is a landform consisting of a hole or depression (geology), depression on a planetary surface, usually caused either by an object hitting the surface, or by geological activity on the planet. A crater has classically been described ...

''Hartwig'' and Martian crater ''Hartwig'' were both named in his honor.

References

External links

Short biography

Additional data on page 21

E. Hartwig
@

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Obituary

AN 219 (1923) 185/186
1851 births 1923 deaths 19th-century German astronomers Discoverers of comets Discoverers of supernovae 20th-century German astronomers {{Germany-astronomer-stub