Wilhelm Wolff Beer (4 January 1797 – 27 March 1850) was a

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becaus ...

and

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

from

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

, and the brother of

Giacomo Meyerbeer Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera '' Robert le ...

Astronomy

Beer's fame derives from his hobby,

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

. He built a private

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. ...

with a 9.5 cm refractor in Tiergarten, Berlin. Together with Johann Heinrich Mädler he produced the first exact map of the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

(entitled '' Mappa Selenographica'') in 1834-1836, and in 1837 published a description of the Moon (''Der Mond nach seinen kosmischen und individuellen Verhältnissen''). Both remained the best descriptions of the Moon for many decades. In 1830, Beer and Mädler created the first globe of the planet

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

. In 1840 they made a map of Mars and calculated its

rotation period The rotation period of a celestial object (e.g., star, gas giant, planet, moon, asteroid) may refer to its sidereal rotation period, i.e. the time that the object takes to complete a single revolution around its axis of rotation relative to the ...

to be 24 h 37 min 22.7 s, only 0.1 seconds different from the actual period as it is known today.

Other work

In addition to his hobby of astronomy, he helped with the establishment of a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

system in

, and promoted the

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish community in Berlin. In his last decade of life, he worked as a writer and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...

. In 1849 he was elected as an MP for the first chamber of the Prussian parliament.

Named after Beer

The crater

Beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

on Mars is named in Wilhelm Beer's honor and lies near Mädler. There is also a crater called

on the

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20040208043324/http://humbabe.arc.nasa.gov/mgcm/fun/mars_chro.html * http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/onlinebks/mars/chap04.htm * https://web.archive.org/web/20070822203214/http://www.exploringmars.com/history/1800.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Beer, Wilhelm 1797 births 1850 deaths 18th-century German Jews 19th-century German astronomers Businesspeople from Berlin People from the Margraviate of Brandenburg Selenographers Recipients of the Lalande Prize