Erwin Obermair (29 August 1946 in

Hargelsberg Hargelsberg is a municipality in the district Linz-Land in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Geography Hargelsberg lies 324 meters above sea level. The municipality is about 4.5 kilometers from north to south, and about 6.3 ...

– 15 January 2017 in

Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

) was an Electrician,

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

amateur astronomer Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers m ...

and co-discoverer of

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

s. Together with his colleague and amateur astronomer

Erich Meyer Erich Meyer (born 6 August 1951) is an Austrian engineer, amateur astronomer and discoverer of asteroids. Astronomical career Between 1996 and 1999, using the private observatory Meyer/Obermair in Davidschlag (municipality Kirchschlag bei Li ...

, Obermair built the private

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

Meyer/Obermair () in Davidschlag (municipality Kirchschlag bei Linz, Austria), in 1978. He co-discovered a total of 10 asteroids at this observatory, all together with Meyer. Furthermore, he was involved in three other discoveries of asteroids between 1996 and 2005, which were assigned as site discoveries to the observatory Davidschlag by the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

. Obermair was a member of the Astronomical Society of Linz (''Linzer Astronomische Gemeinschaft''), from 1974 until his death he was vice president of that association and made regularly observatory tours most of the time. His most important observations include precisie

astrometry Astrometry is a branch of astronomy that involves precise measurements of the positions and movements of stars and other Astronomical object, celestial bodies. It provides the kinematics and physical origin of the Solar System and this galaxy, th ...

of the

comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 ( formally designated D/1993 F2) was a comet that broke apart in July 1992 and collided with Jupiter in July 1994, providing the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of Solar System objects. ...

, which he observerd together with Erich Meyer and Herbert Raab in 1993. These observations have significantly contributed to the subsequent prediction of the

impact Impact may refer to: * Impact (mechanics), a large force or mechanical shock over a short period of time * Impact, Texas, a town in Taylor County, Texas, US Science and technology * Impact crater, a meteor crater caused by an impact event * Imp ...

of this

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 ...

on the planet

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 ...

On 4 April 1997, Obermair was presented the Decoration of Honour in Silver of the Republic of Austria. The main-belt asteroid 9236 Obermair, discovered by his college Erich Meyer at Linz in 1997, was named in his honor. Naming citation was published on 4 May 1999 (). He was well educated in geology and astronomy on top of that a passioned astrophotographer. Obermair was married.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obermair, Erwin 20th-century Austrian astronomers Discoverers of asteroids 1946 births 2017 deaths * Scientists from Linz 21st-century Austrian astronomers