Benjamin Apthorp Gould

Benjamin Apthorp Gould ( born September 27, 1824 in Boston, † November 26, 1896 in Cambridge, Massachusetts ) was an American astronomer, who worked a long time in Argentina.

After graduating from Harvard University in 1844 he received his doctorate in 1848 at the University of Göttingen.

Gould founded in 1849 the prestigious journal Astronomical Journal.

In 1866 he led the first length determination between America and Europe with the help of a transatlantic cable.

He served as director of the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York from 1856 to 1859. From 1852 to 1867 he was Director of the Department Longitude of the U.S. Coast Survey.

In 1868, he became the first director of the Argentine National Observatory ( Observatorio today Astronómico de Córdoba). In Argentina, he mapped in detail the southern sky with newly developed photometric method. The result was several star catalogs, including his 1879 Uranometria Argentina. He remained until 1885 in Argentina, then he returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts, back.

He received the 1883 Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society and in 1887, the James Craig Watson Medal. Named after him are the lunar crater Gould, the asteroid ( 7808 ) Bagould and Gouldsche belt, a large-scale structure in the solar neighborhood, which was identified by Gould and still is the subject of intensive research. In addition, he was inducted in 1892 into the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite for Arts and Sciences as a foreign member (Source: The Order pour le Merite for Arts and Science, The members of the Order, Volume II ( 1882-1952 ), page 86, Gebr man -Verlag, Berlin, 1978).

Benjamin Apthorp Gould died on 26 November 1896 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

115210
de