Heinrich Christian Schumacher

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher.

Heinrich Christian Schumacher (September 3, 1780 – December 28, 1850) was a German-Danish astronomer.

Biography

He was born at Bramstedt, in Holstein, and studied at Kiel, Jena, Copenhagen, and Göttingen. In 1810, he became adjunct professor of astronomy in Copenhagen. He directed the Mannheim observatory from 1813 to 1815, and then became professor of astronomy in Copenhagen.

From 1817 he directed the triangulation of Holstein, to which a few years later was added a complete geodetic survey of Denmark (finished after his death). For the sake of the survey, an observatory was established at Altona, and Schumacher resided there permanently. He was chiefly occupied with the publication of Ephemerides (11 parts, 1822–1832) and of the journal Astronomische Nachrichten (founded by himself in 1821 and still being published), of which he edited thirty-one volumes.

In 1827 he was elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and in 1829 he won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. His portrait now hangs in the Development Office of the Royal Society.

Family

His son, Richard Schumacher (1827–1902), was his assistant from 1844 to 1850 at the conservatory at Altona. Having become assistant to Carlos Guillermo Moesta (1825–1884), director of the observatory at Santiago de Chile, in 1859, he was associated with the Chilean geodesic survey in 1864. Returning in 1869, he was appointed assistant astronomer at Altona in 1873, and afterwards at Kiel.

H. C. Schumacher's nephew, Christian Andreas Schumacher (1810–1854), was associated with the geodetic survey of Denmark from 1833 to 1838, and afterwards (1844–1845) improved the observatory at Pulkowa.

Notes

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Schumacher, Heinrich Christian". Encyclopædia Britannica 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 383
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Thurston, H. T.; Moore, F., eds. (1905). "Schumacher, Heinrich Christian". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.

Persondata
Name	Schumacher, Heinrich Christian
Alternative names
Short description	German-Danish astronomer
Date of birth	September 3, 1780
Place of birth	Holstein
Date of death	December 28, 1850
Place of death	Altona, Hamburg

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.