Abstract
ON October 26 occurred the centenary of the birth of the Austrian astronomer Theodor Ritter von Oppolzer who from 1876 until his death on December 26, 1886, held the chair of astronomy at Vienna. Born at Prague, he was the only son of Johann von Oppolzer, (1808–71), a well–known pathologist who held chairs first in Prague, then in Leipzig and Vienna. Though he took a degree in medicine, Theodor von Oppolzer, being of independent means, devoted his time to astronomy and built a private observatory. For ten years he studied asteroids and comets, on which he published a well–known “Lehr–buch”. In 1873 he became connected with the great European degree measurement, and for some years was chairman of the Austrian Commission. In his later years he studied planetary disturbances, the motion of the moon, refraction and other subjects. His most notable contribution to science, however, was his “Canon der Finstemisss”, containing the elements of eclipses of the sun and moon, some 13,000 in number, from 1207 B.C. to A.D. 2162 (1887). Among the honours he received were his election as an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society and as a corresponding member of the Paris Academy of Sciences. His son Egon (1869–1907) was an assistant at Prague Observatory and professor extraordinary at Innsbruck.
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Theodor Ritter von Oppolzer (1841–1886). Nature 148, 529 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148529b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148529b0