Johann Nepomuk Krieger

Johann Nepomuk Krieger ( born February 4, 1865 in Unterwiesenstrasse Bach, † February 10, 1902 in San Remo ) was a German artist and selenograph.

He was born in Bavaria, the son of a master brewer. From a young age, his interest turned to astronomy. He only attended school until the age of 15 years. However, when he made ​​an inheritance, he used the money to set up an observatory on the outskirts of Munich. He was inspired by the director of the observatory of Köln, to devote his life to the study and observation of the moon.

Warriors decided to create an accurate map of the moon. To this end, he got himself a number of negatives of the lunar surface at low resolution. These were developed at the Lick Observatory and the Paris Observatory. He enlarged the images and used them to obtain accurate positions for its resultant drawings. These illustrations, made ​​with charcoal, pencil and ink, surpassed all previous lunar maps of accuracy and detail, and are estimated to date as works of art.

He lived to see the publication of the first 28 representations as Volume 1 of his Moon Atlas in 1898. However, had suffered greatly his health, and he died soon after. In 1912 the rest of his drawings and sketches were published as Volume 2 by the Austrian Rudolf Selenographen king.

The crater Krieger on the moon was named after him in 1935.