Philipp Johann Heinrich Fauth (19 March 1867 — 4 January 1941) was a German selenographer.

Biography

Born in

Bad Dürkheim Bad Dürkheim () is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German W ...

, he worked as a

schoolteacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

. His interest in astronomy was sparked when his father showed him Coggia's comet. As an

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 ...

, he studied the formations on 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 ...

with great intensity and meticulousness. He compiled an extensive

atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...

of the moon between 1884 and 1940 (which was not completely published until 1964, and prized today as a rare book). His ''Unser Mond'' was published in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie H ...

in 1936. Working from an

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. H ...

Landstuhl Landstuhl () is a town in the Kaiserslautern district of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. It is the seat of ''Verbandsgemeinde Landstuhl'', a kind of "collective municipality." Landstuhl is situated on the north-west edge of the Palatinate F ...

, Fauth represented the moon in twenty-four sectors. Unfortunately, Fauth carried out this immense work at the same time that advances were being made in

photography Photography is the visual art, art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It i ...

that allowed for a more reliable depiction of the lunar surface. In 1913 with co-author Hanns Hörbiger he published his now-defunct World Ice Theory ('' Glazial-Kosmogonie''),Hans Hoerbiger and Philipp Fauth, ''Glazialkosmogenie''. 1913 which was subsequently investigated by Hans Schindler Bellamy. In 1939,

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

gave him the title of professor, although Fauth had never taught at a

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

and never received a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' ...

. Fauth was a member of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

and worked as a scientist and SS officer for the SS-

Ahnenerbe The Ahnenerbe (, ''ancestral heritage'') operated as a think tank in Nazi Germany between 1935 and 1945. Heinrich Himmler, the ''Reichsführer-SS'' from 1929 onwards, established it in July 1935 as an SS appendage devoted to the task of promot ...

. He died in

Grünwald, Bavaria Grünwald (German for ''green forest'') is a municipality in the district of Munich, in the state of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the right bank of the Isar, 12 km southwest of Munich (centre). it had a population of 11,303. Grünwal ...

. The crater

Fauth Fauth is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Evelyn Fauth (born 1976), Austrian tennis player *Gerald Fauth, American consultant and government official * Gerhard Fauth (1915–2003), German journalist *Julian Fauth, Canadian blu ...

on the Moon is named after him.

Notes

External links

Fauth biography in Chuck Wood's Moon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fauth, Philipp Johann Heinrich 1867 births 1941 deaths Amateur astronomers 19th-century German astronomers People from Bad Dürkheim People from the Palatinate (region) Selenographers 20th-century German astronomers