Hugo von Seeliger (23 September 1849 – 2 December 1924), also known as Hugo Hans Ritter von Seeliger, was a German astronomer, often considered the most important astronomer of his day.

Biography

He was born in Biala, completed high school in Teschen in 1867, and studied at the Universities of

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

and

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 ...

. He earned a doctorate in astronomy in 1872 from the latter, studying under Carl Christian Bruhns. He was on the staff of the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

Observatory until 1877, as an assistant to

Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander (22 March 1799 – 17 February 1875) was a German astronomer. He is known for his determinations of stellar brightnesses, positions, and distances. Life and work Argelander was born in Memel in the Kingd ...

. In 1874, he directed the German expedition to the

Auckland Islands The Auckland Islands ( Māori: ''Motu Maha'' "Many islands" or ''Maungahuka'' "Snowy mountains") are an archipelago of New Zealand, lying south of the South Island. The main Auckland Island, occupying , is surrounded by smaller Adams Island ...

to observe 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 1881, he became the Director of the

Gotha Observatory Gotha Observatory (''Seeberg Observatory'', ''Sternwarte Gotha'' or ''Seeberg-Sternwarte'') was a German astronomical observatory located on Seeberg hill near Gotha, Thuringia, Germany. Initially the observatory was dedicated to astrometry, geodet ...

, and in 1882 became a professor of Astronomy and Director of the Observatory at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

, which post he held until his death. His students included Hans Kienle, Ernst Anding, Julius Bauschinger, Paul ten Bruggencate,

Gustav Herglotz Gustav Herglotz (2 February 1881 – 22 March 1953) was a German Bohemian physicist best known for his works on the theory of relativity and seismology. Biography Gustav Ferdinand Joseph Wenzel Herglotz was born in Volary num. 28 to a public n ...

Richard Schorr Richard Reinhard Emil Schorr (20 August 1867, Kassel – 21 September 1951, Badgastein, Salzburg), was a German astronomer, who served as the director of the Hamburger Stemwarte at the end of the 19th century. Early life and education Career ...

, and especially

Karl Schwarzschild Karl Schwarzschild (; 9 October 1873 – 11 May 1916) was a German physicist and astronomer. Schwarzschild provided the first exact solution to the Einstein field equations of general relativity, for the limited case of a single spherical non-r ...

, who earned a doctorate under him in 1898, and acknowledged Seeliger's influence in speeches throughout his career. Seeliger was elected an Associate of the

Royal Astronomical Society The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...

in 1892, and President of the

Astronomische Gesellschaft __NOTOC__ The ''Astronomische Gesellschaft'' is an astronomical society established in 1863 in Heidelberg, the second oldest astronomical society after the Royal Astronomical Society. History In 1882, the ''Astronomische Gesellschaft'' founded t ...

from 1897 to 1921. He received numerous honours and medals, including knighthood (''Ritter''), between 1896 and 1917. His contributions to astronomy include an explanation of the anomalous motion of the perihelion of Mercury (later one of the main

tests of general relativity Tests of general relativity serve to establish observational evidence for the theory of general relativity. The first three tests, proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915, concerned the "anomalous" precession of the perihelion of Mercury (planet), Me ...

), a theory of

nova A nova ( novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. All observed novae involve white ...

coming from the collision of a star with a cloud of gas, and his confirmation of

James Clerk Maxwell James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician who was responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism an ...

's theories of the composition of the

rings of Saturn Saturn has the most extensive and complex ring system of any planet in the Solar System. The rings consist of particles in orbit around the planet made almost entirely of water ice, with a trace component of Rock (geology), rocky material. Parti ...

by studying variations in their albedo. He is also the discoverer of an apparent paradox in Newton's gravitational law, known as Seeliger's Paradox. However his main interest was in the stellar statistics of the

Bonner Durchmusterung In astronomy, Durchmusterung or Bonner Durchmusterung (BD) is an astrometric star catalogue of the whole sky, published by the Bonn Observatory in Germany from 1859 to 1863, with an extension published in Bonn in 1886. The name comes from ('run-t ...

and Bonn section of the Astronomische Gesellschaft star catalogues, and in the conclusions these led about the structure of the universe. Seeliger's views on the dimensions of our galaxy were consistent with

Jacobus Kapteyn Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (19 January 1851 – 18 June 1922) was a Dutch astronomy, astronomer. He carried out extensive studies of the Milky Way. He found that the apparent movement of stars was not randomly distributed but had two preferentia ...

's later studies. Seeliger was an opponent of Albert Einstein's

theory of relativity The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated physics theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical ph ...

.Weinstein, Galina. (2016). ''General Relativity Conflict and Rivalries: Einstein's Polemics with Physicists''. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 211–212. He continued his work until his death, on 2 December 1924, aged 75. The

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 ...

892 Seeligeria and the

lunar crater Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, all of which were formed by impacts. The International Astronomical Union currently recognizes 9,137 craters, of which 1,675 have been dated. History The wo ...

Seeliger Seeliger is a name meaning "blessed man" in German and Yiddish. Notable people with the surname include: * Hugo von Seeliger (1849–1924), German astronomer * Rudolf Seeliger (1886–1965), German physicist * Thomas Seeliger (born 1966), Germa ...

were named in his honour. The brightening of

Saturn's rings Saturn has the most extensive and complex ring system of any planet in the Solar System. The rings consist of particles in orbit around the planet made almost entirely of water ice, with a trace component of rocky material. Particles range fro ...

at opposition is known as the

Seeliger Effect The opposition surge (sometimes known as the opposition effect, opposition spike or Seeliger effect) is the brightening of a rough surface, or an object with many particles, when illuminated from directly behind the observer. The term is most wid ...

, to acknowledge his pioneering research in this field. Minor planet

251 Sophia 251 Sophia is a stony background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 4 October 1885, by astronomer Johann Palisa at the Vienna Observatory in Austria. The S-type asteroid (S/L) has a rotation period of 2 ...

is named after his wife, Sophia.

Students

His PhD students were (afte
Mathematics Genealogy Project, Hugo Hans von Seeliger
: * Julius Bauschinger, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1884 * Ernst Anding, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1888 *

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1889 * Karl Oertel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1890 * Oscar Hecker, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1891 * Adalbert Bock, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1892 * George Myers, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1896 *

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München 1897 *

Lucian Grabowski Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridicul ...

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1900 *

Emil Silbernagel Emil may refer to: Literature *''Emil and the Detectives'' (1929), a children's novel *"Emil", nickname of the Kurt Maschler Award for integrated text and illustration (1982–1999) *''Emil i Lönneberga'', a series of children's novels by Astr ...

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1905 *

Ernst Zapp Ernst is both a surname and a given name, the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian form of Ernest. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Adolf Ernst (1832–1899) German botanist known by the author abbreviation "Ernst" * Anton Ernst (born 1 ...

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1907 *

Kasimir Jantzen Casimir is a Latin version of the Polish male name Kazimierz (). The original Polish feminine form is Kazimiera, in Latin and other languages rendered as Casimira. It has two possible meanings: "preacher of peace" or alternatively "destroyer of p ...

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1912 *

Wilhelm Keil Wilhelm may refer to: People and fictional characters * William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm" * Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Other uses * Wilhe ...

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1918 *

Friedrich Burmeister Friedrich Burmeister (1890–1969) was a German geophysicist. He was director of the Munich University’s Geomagnetic Observatory. Burmeister studied mathematics and physics at the University of Munich under Hugo von Seeliger and Arnold So ...

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1919 * Gustav Schnauder, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1921 *

Walter Sametinger Walter may refer to: People and fictional characters * Walter (name), including a list of people and fictional and mythical characters with the given name or surname * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–19 ...

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1924

References

Freddy Litten:Hugo von Seeliger – Kurzbiographie
Short biography (in German).
Obituary: Professor Hugo von Seeliger
Scan from "The Observatory", Vol. 48, p. 77 (1925), presented by Smithsonian/NASA ADS Astronomy Abstract Service * {{DEFAULTSORT:Seeliger, Hugo von 1849 births 1924 deaths People from Biała People from Austrian Silesia 20th-century German astronomers 19th-century German astronomers Bavarian nobility Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Relativity critics Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala