Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve

Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve (April 15th 1793 - November 23rd 1864 (November 11th in the Calendar Julien)) astronome germano - was a Baltic.

Life

He is born with Altona which is located then at the Denmark, wire of Jacob Struve (1755-1841) and represents the second generation of the five of the family of astronomers Struve. His/her father Jacob Struve leaves the Germany to avoid the military service imposed by the French occupant at the time of the Napoleonean Guerres to go in Latvia then in Livonie, at that time located in the Russian Empire.

In 1808 it enters to the Université of Tartu where it studies initially the Philologie then turns to the Astronomie. Of 1813 with 1820 it teaches in Tartu and carries out its observations with Dorpat. In 1820 he becomes professor and director of this observatory.

Struve remains in Tartu, occupied by the research of double stars and work in Géodésie until in 1839 when it founds and becomes director of the Observatoire of Pulkovo close to Saint Petersbourg. It receives the Gold medal of Royal Astronomical Society in 1826. Its health obliges it to withdraw in 1861.

The asteroid (768) Struveana is named according to him, his/her son Otto Wilhelm von Struve and its grandson Karl Hermann Struve.

Work

Struve is known in astronomy for its work on the double stars. Although these stars were already studied by William Herschel, John Herschel and Sir James South, Struve exceeds all the preceding efforts. He discovers a great number of double stars and in 1827 publishes Catalogus novus stellarum duplicium .

The majority of double stars being binary stars rather than of the visual binary (William Herschel showed it the first), they orbit around their Barycentre and slowly change position during the years. Struve takes precise measurements of 214 double stars of 1824 with 1837 and publishes them in Stellarum duplicium and multiplicium mensurae micrometricae .

It takes new measurements of the constant of aberration of the light in 1843. It is also the first to measure the Parallaxe Véga, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel being the first to have made a success of a measurement of star parallax (61 Cygni).

Struve carries also a great interest to the Géodésie and in 1831 it publishes Beschreibung der Breitengradmessung in den Ostseeprovinzen Russlands . It initiates the geodetic Arc of Struve, classified in world heritage, to measure the size and the shape of ground.

Family

In 1815 it Marie with Emilie Wall (1796-1834) in Altona, they have twelve children of which eights survive their young childhood. One of its sons, Otto Wilhelm von Struve continuous in the way of astronomy, another, Heinrich or Genrikh Vasilyevich Struve (1822 - 1908) becomes chemist and Bernhard Vasilyevich Struve (1827 - 1889) which are useful in Siberia then as governor D Astrakhan and of Perm.

After the death of his first wife, it remarie with Johanna Henriette Francisca Bartels (1807 - 1867) and have six children, most known is Karl or Kirill Vasil' evich (1835 - 1907) ambassador of Russia to the Japan, the United States and Netherlands.

The son of Bernhard, Pyotr Berngardovich Struve (1870-1944) is probably the most known family member in Russia. He is one of first Marxist Russian and signs the Manifeste Parti working social democrat Russia in 1898 before turning to more liberal ideas and becoming Russian white.

External bonds

the family Struve (pdf)
genealogy

Simple: Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve

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