Joseph Johann Littrow

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**Joseph von Littrow**
Portrait of Joseph Johann von Littrow from his 1836 book Physische Astronomie (Physical Astronomy).
Born	March 13, 1781 Horšovský Týn, Bohemia
Died	November 30, 1840 Vienna, Austria
Residence	Bohemia Austria
Nationality	Austrian
Field	Astronomer
Institution	Krakau University Kazan University Vienna Observatory Buda Observatory University of Vienna
Alma mater	Charles University
Notable students	Nikolai Brashman Ivan Simonov
Known for	Littrow projection
Note that he was the father of Karl L. Littrow.

Joseph Johann von Littrow (March 13, 1781 – November 30, 1840) was an Austrian astronomer born of an aristocratic family. In 1837, he was ennobled with the title Joseph Johann Littrow von Elder. He was the father of Karl L. Littrow and the mentor of the mathematician Nikolai Brashman.

He became director of the Vienna Observatory in 1819, until 1840. He created the only conformal retroazimuthal map projection, which is known as the Littrow projection.

Von Littrow is often associated with a proposal to dig a large circular canal in the Sahara desert and fill it with burning kerosene, thus communicating the fact of human intelligence to aliens who may be observing earth. However, Von Littrow's connection with this scheme may be apocryphal [1] [2].

The Litrow crater on the Moon was named in his honour.

[edit] Timeline

1799 Entered Charles University
1802 Graduated in jurisprudence and theology
1803 Became the private tutor of count J. Renard in Silesia
1807 Appointed professor of astronomy Krakau University
1810 Established the observatory at Kazan University
1816 Became co-director of the observatory at Ofen (Buda)
1819 Appointed professor of astronomy at the University of Vienna and became director of the first university observatory Vienna, which he reorganized completely