Christfried Kirch (24 December 1694,

Guben Guben (Polish language, Polish and Sorbian languages, Sorbian: ''Gubin'') is a town on the Lusatian Neisse river in Lower Lusatia, in the States of Germany, state of Brandenburg, in eastern Germany. Located in the Spree-Neiße Districts of German ...

– 9 March 1740,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

) 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 ...

and almanac publisher.

Life and work

He was born in

, Germany the son of the astronomers

Gottfried Kirch Gottfried Kirch (; also KircheKenneth Glyn Jones, ''The Search for the Nebulae'', Alpha Academic, 1975, p. 19. , Kirkius; 18 December 1639 – 25 July 1710) was a German astronomer and the first "Astronomer Royal" in Berlin and, as such, director ...

and Maria Margaretha Kirch. Christfried had already participated in the

solar observation Solar observation is the scientific endeavor of studying the Sun and its behavior and relation to the Earth and the remainder of the Solar System. Deliberate solar observation began thousands of years ago. That initial era of direct observation g ...

s of his father at the age of 12. His astronomical studies began in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

and Danzig. From 1716 until his death in 1740 he was, like his father, Direktor of the

Berlin Observatory The Berlin Observatory (Berliner Sternwarte) is a German astronomical institution with a series of observatories and related organizations in and around the city of Berlin in Germany, starting from the 18th century. It has its origins in 1700 w ...

, in spite of repeated requests from the Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. In 1717 he had received his father's former post at the Königlich Preußischen Sozietät der Wissenschaften. In the continuation of his father's work, especially in almanac calculation, he was aided by his mother and his younger sister . In 1726 Kirch was made responsible for the academy's library which up until then had been the responsibility of the secretary of the academy,

Johann Theodor Jablonski Johann Theodor Jablonski (15 December 1654, Danzig (Gdańsk) Poland – 28 April 1731, Berlin) was a German people, German educator and lexicographer of Czech people, Czech origin, who also wrote under the pen name Pierre Rondeau. Life Johann The ...

, and was appointed Librarian in 1735. Christfried Kirch published many articles in several journals. He described the

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

of 1718, observations of

sunspot Sunspots are temporary spots on the Sun's surface that are darker than the surrounding area. They are one of the most recognizable Solar phenomena and despite the fact that they are mostly visible in the solar photosphere they usually aff ...

s and the surface of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

and of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

, of

occultation An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks f ...

the moons of Jupiter ''The Moons of Jupiter'' is a book of short stories by Alice Munro, published by Macmillan of Canada in 1982. It was nominated for the 1982 Governor General's Award for English Fiction."B.C. authors considered for awards". ''The Province ' ...

, of

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 ...

, as well as the Northern Lights and the

Earth's magnetic field Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from structure of Earth, Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from ...

. In 1730 appeared his greatest work He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1742.

Literature

* (Familienartikel)

References

External links

Galerie des Universums
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirch, Christfried 1694 births 1740 deaths People from Guben 18th-century German astronomers Fellows of the Royal Society 18th-century German publishers (people)