Rudolf König (18 August 1865 – 30 January 1927) was an

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 ...

n merchant, amateur

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

selenographer Selenography is the study of the surface and physical features of the Moon (also known as geography of the Moon, or selenodesy). Like geography and areography, selenography is a subdiscipline within the field of planetary science. Historically, ...

Biography

König was born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and received his technical education 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 ...

. He was the son of Georg König, a fur businessman. While he worked for his father's fur business, he attended lectures at the University of Vienna and acquired astronomical knowledge. König and his wife Josefine Antonie König had two children.

Private observatory

As he had an interest in astronomy, in 1906 he built a private observatory in Vienna, on the top of his house, 12 Kuppelwiesergasse. The instrument was designed for astrophotography and consisted of Carl Zeiss’ 18 cm and 21 cm diameter double refactors on an equatorial mount. From his observatory, he observed the crater

König König (; ) is the German language, German word for "king". In German and other languages applying the Diaeresis (diacritic), umlaut, the transliterations ''Koenig'' and ''Kœnig'', when referring to a surname, also occur. As a surname in English, ...

named after him and completed his study for his deceased friend, the draftsman, and selenographer, Johann Kreiger. In 1929, after König's death, his widow sold the telescope to the “Bohemian Astronomical Society” to build a public observatory in Prague. The observatory is now operated by the Stefanik Observatory in Prague. The

Vienna Observatory The Vienna Observatory () is an astronomical observatory in Vienna, Austria. It is part of the University of Vienna. The first observatory was built in 1753–1754 on the roof of one of the university buildings. A new observatory was built betwe ...

houses his specialist library, as well as other astronomical instruments.

Study for Kreiger’s publication

König was a friend of

Johann Krieger Johann Krieger (28 December 1651 – 18 July 1735) was a German composer and organist, younger brother of Johann Philipp Krieger. Born in Nuremberg, he worked at Bayreuth, Zeitz, and Greiz before settling in Zittau. He was one of the most importa ...

as well as the co-editor of Kreiger's ''Mond Atlas''. After Krieger's death, he left mass unorganized descriptions and sketches of the Moon observation. König then spent two years’ observation on his observatory, and within five years arranged two Krieger's volumes including his reproduction drawing and sketches, and requisite letterpress.“Popular Astronomy.”
Edited by Herbert C.1912Print p10. In 1912. König published a volume of

’s illustrations of the Moon.

References

*Štefánikova hvězdárna - Hvězdárna a planetárium hl. m. Prahy, Stefanik Observatory, Prague �
Website in English
1865 births 1927 deaths Scientists from Vienna 19th-century Austrian astronomers Austrian merchants 20th-century Austrian astronomers Astronomers from Austria-Hungary Expatriates in the German Empire Expatriates from Austria-Hungary in Germany {{Europe-astronomer-stub