Adolph Gottfried Kinau

Gottfried Adolf Kinau ( born January 4, 1814 Winningen; † January 9, 1888 in Suhl ) was a German pastor and astronomer.

Kinau was born into a Protestant pastor and teacher's family. After visiting the Domgymnasium in Halberstadt 1828-1833 he studied from 1833 to 1840 theology at the universities of Halle and Magdeburg. From 1840 he worked as a private tutor and backup minister at Marie Born, from 1845 to 1849 then as a teacher at the boys' school in Nice pool near Magdeburg. In 1849 he was appointed rector of the boys' grammar school in Suhl and held at the same time the office of a preacher early in the main church. In 1851 he became a first pastorate in tube, from which he then in 1861 moved to the Holy Cross Church in Suhl. The pastorate in Suhl he held until his death. Besides his work as a pastor, he accompanied several functions in the charitable and educational field: He was chairman of the arms Commission, a member of the Bible Society and Board of Education and district school inspector.

Practically all his life he worked in his spare time with astronomy. With a telescope which he had acquired in 1847 by the French royal Hofoptikermeistern Lerebours and Secretan in Paris, Kinau began to observe the moon. As a consequence, made ​​his name as selenograph, ie he made ​​numerous drawings of the lunar surface that were never published with one exception and untraceable. He specialized in the observation of the moon grooves ( Rimae ), some of which he first described.

1876 ​​suggested the English astronomer Edmund Neison before (pseudonym of Edmund Neville Nevill ( 1849-1940 ) ), to name the lunar craters described in 1837 by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Beer and Mädler Jacobi D to Kinau. Its name came but later forgotten. Since the beginning of April 2007, the crater again bears his name officially.