Johann von Lamont
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Johann von Lamont (December 13, 1805 – August 6, 1879) was a Scottish-German astronomer and physicist.
He was born in Inverey, Scotland and moved to Ratisbon, Germany in 1817 to study at the local seminary. He began to work in astronomy and joined the Bogenhausen Observatory, became its director in 1835 and a professor of astronomy in 1852 at Munich University. At the observatory he undertook the task of creating a star catalog that had about 35,000 entries.
His most important work was on the magnetism of the Earth. He performed magnetic surveys in Bavaria and northern Germany, France, Spain, and Denmark. He discovered a magnetic decennial period (ten-year cycle) and the electric current in the Earth closing the electric "circuit" creating the magnetic field in 1850. This roughly matched the eleven-year sunspot cycle discovered by Heinrich Schwabe.
He calculated the orbits of the moons of Uranus and Saturn, obtaining the first value for Uranus' mass. By chance he observed Neptune in 1845 and twice in 1846, but did not recognize the object as being a new planet.
Lamont is the author of Handbuch des Erdmagnetismus (1849).
He died in Munich, Germany.
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[edit] Honors
The following astronomical features were named in his honor:
- Lamont crater on Mars.
- Lamont crater on the Moon.
