Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth

Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth (April 4, 1892 in Heidelberg – May 6, 1979) was a German astronomer.

He was a prolific discoverer of asteroids (almost 400 of them), beginning with 796 Sarita in 1914, working at the Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl astronomical observatory on the Königstuhl hill above Heidelberg, Germany from 1912 to 1957.

His most notable discoveries include 1322 Coppernicus, the Apollo asteroids 1862 Apollo (the namesake of the group) and 69230 Hermes.

He also discovered the Trojan asteroids 911 Agamemnon, 1143 Odysseus, 1172 Äneas, 1173 Anchises, 1208 Troilus, 1404 Ajax, 1437 Diomedes, 1749 Telamon.

He also discovered 5535 Annefrank which was later visited by the Stardust spacecraft.

He discovered two comets, namely the periodic comets 30P/Reinmuth and 44P/Reinmuth.

Asteroid 1111 Reinmuthia is named after him (and discovered by him, a practice that would become disallowed later on).

The initials of the minor planets 1227 through 1234, all discovered by Reinmuth, spell out "G. Stracke". This German astronomer and orbit computer had asked that no planet be named after him. In this manner Reinmuth was able to honour the man whilst honouring his wish:

• 1227 Geranium
• 1228 Scabiosa
• 1229 Tilia
• 1230 Riceia
• 1231 Auricula
• 1232 Cortusa
• 1233 Kobresia
• 1234 Elyna

Works

• The Herschel nebulas, De Gruyter, Berlin 1926
• Catalog of 6.500 exact photographic positions of small planets, brown, Karlsruhe 1953

External links

Obituaries

• MPBu 7 (1979) 10
• (German) MitAG 50 (1980) 7