Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters
Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters ( born September 19, 1813 in Koldenbüttel, Schleswig -Holstein, † July 18, 1890 in Clinton, New York ) was a German - American astronomer.
Peters studied astronomy and mathematics at JF Encke at the Berlin University and worked for his doctorate as assistant to the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss in Göttingen.
Together with the geologist Wolfgang Sartorius von Walter Hausen he undertook a trip to Sicily and carried out investigations of the Etna volcano. Later he worked at the Observatory of Capodimonte in Naples, where he carried out observations of sunspots and 1846 a very faint comet (1846 VI) discovered. Since the orbit determination performed by him proved to be false, the comet was only rediscovered in 1982.
As a result of political unrest had to flee to France in 1849 Peters. From there he went to Constantinople destitute Opel (now Istanbul). Due to its very good language skills - Peters ruled out several European languages Ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian and Turkish - he became the scientific adviser of Reshid Pasha, the Grand Vizier of Sultan Mejid II
At the suggestion of the American Ambassador in Turkey and equipped with a letter of recommendation from Alexander von Humboldt Peters in 1854 went to North America. He went to the Observatory of Harvard University and lectured at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Providence, Rhode Iceland, about his observations of the sun. Peters argued that prevail on the sun tremendous electrical storms. In addition, he had observed that the sunspots move not only due to the rotation in the equatorial direction, but also along the longitudes.
In 1859 Peter the position of Professor of Astronomy at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, on. The Institute had a newly built observatory with a 13 ½-inch refractor, at that time one of the largest telescopes in America. Astronomy, however, had at that time not a high priority in the States and so was this place badly paid and Peters continued to live on the breadline. His carried out at this time observations of sunspots were not published until after his death.
As Peters 1861 Feronia asteroids discovered the professional world was again aware of him. Peters had actually wanted the asteroid Maja, who previously HP Tuttle had been discovered. In the following years he succeeded in the discovery of 48 asteroids. Only the record discoverer Johann Palisa was more successful in this field.
Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters was a brother of the scientist Wilhelm Karl Hartwig Peters.