Maximilian Hell

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Maximilian Hell (Hungarian: Hell Miksa; Slovak: Maximilián Hell; May 15, 1720 – April 14, 1792) was an astronomer and an ordained Jesuit priest from the Kingdom of Hungary.

[edit] Biography

Hell was born Maximilian Höll in Pergh (Pargh) in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Štiavnické Bane in Slovakia). Höll later changed his surname to Hell. He was the third son from the second marriage of his father. He had 21 brothers and sisters. His father was Matej Kornel Hell (Slovak sources)^{[citation needed]} / Matthias Cornelius Hell [Matthäus Kornelius Hell] (German sources) whose ethnicity is usually given as German or Slovak.^{[citation needed]} The place of birth of Maximilian's father is unknown; the settlements Kremnica, Horní Slavkov, or Ostrov nad Ohří are most frequently given. Hell considered himself a Hungarian.[1]

Hell became the director of the Vienna Observatory in 1755. He published the astronomical tables Ephemerides astronomicae ad meridianum Vindobonemsem ("Ephemerides for the Meridian of Vienna"). He went to Vardø in the far north of Norway (then part of Denmark) to observe the 1769 transit of Venus.

There was some controversy about Hell's observations of the transit of Venus because he stayed in Norway for eight months, collecting non-astronomical scientific data about the arctic regions for a planned encyclopedia (which never appeared, in part due to the suppression of the Jesuit order). The publication of his results was delayed, and some (notably Joseph Johann Littrow) accused Hell posthumously of falsifying his results. However, Simon Newcomb carefully studied Hell's notebooks and exonerated him a century after his death in Vienna.

Besides astronomy, Hell also had an interest in magnet therapy (the alleged healing power of magnets), although it was Franz Anton Mesmer who went further with this and received most of the credit.

The Hell crater on the Moon is named after Hell.

[edit] Literature

• Alexander Moutchnik, Forschung und Lehre in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts. Der Naturwissenschaftler und Universitätsprofessor Christian Mayer SJ (1719-1783) (Algorismus, Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik und der Naturwissenschaften, Bd. 54), Erwin Rauner Verlag, Augsburg, 523 Seiten mit 8 Tafeln, 2006. ISBN 3-936905-16-9 http://www.erwin-rauner.de/algor/ign_publ.htm#H54 Inhaltsverzeichnis: http://www.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/tocs/178692786.pdf (German)

[edit] External links

• Red Hill Observatory biography
• Astronomy Library of the Vienna University