Frederik Kaiser

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Frederik Kaiser (Amsterdam, June 10, 1808 – Leiden, July 28, 1872) was a Dutch astronomer. He was director of the Leiden Observatory from 1838 until his death.

He is credited with the advancement of Dutch astronomy through his world-class scientific contributions of positional measurements, his successful popularization of astronomy in the Netherlands, and by helping to build a state-of-the-art observatory in 1861 (Today it is known as the "Old Observatory").

He made a series of drawings of Mars at its opposition in 1862 and made a fairly precise determination of its rotational period.

A crater on Mars and on the Moon are named in his honour, as well as asteroid 1694 Kaiser.

In Richard Proctor's now-abandoned Martian nomenclature, Syrtis Major was called the "Kaiser Sea". This nomenclature was later dropped in favor of the one introduced by Giovanni Schiaparelli.

[edit] External links

• Obituary
• Petra van der Heijden Frederik Kaiser (1808-1872) and the modernisation of Dutch astronomy