Karl Stumpff

Karl Johann Nikolaus Stumpff ( born May 17, 1895 in Schleswig, † November 10, 1970 in Göttingen ) was a German astronomer.

Stumpff was the son of a master carpenter ( who already died in 1909 ) and made 1914 in Flensburg High School. He studied ( interrupted by the First World War service with the Red Cross ) then in Göttingen ( Johannes Franz Hartmann, Leopold Ambronn, Emil Wiechert ) and Kiel (Paul Harzer ). In 1922 he received his doctorate in Göttingen ( theory of periodograms and their applicability to analysis of lunar motion). From the dissertation also a photographic apparatus was built for the discovery of such periods in the observation data (eg position of the rotation axis of the earth, sun spots, star brightness) took advantage of the Stumpff in 1925 as an assistant at the Wroclaw Observatory. In 1927 he qualified as a professor in Breslau. In 1934 he was Observer at the Meteorological Institute in Berlin, where he should apply his period studies, and in 1935 except associate professor of physiology at the University of Berlin. In 1942 he became an associate professor of astronomy at the University of Graz and Director of the University Observatory Graz. He turned to where the already begun in Wroclaw studies on celestial mechanics to, for which he is best known.

After the Second World War, in 1946, he had to leave Austria and in 1952 until his retirement in 1959 Professor of Spherical Astronomy, orbit determination and celestial mechanics at the University of Göttingen. 1961 and 1966/67, he lectured and worked at NASA in Washington DC in particular to methods of orbit determination.

He also wrote popular science books in addition to his textbook on celestial mechanics. He wrote, among other things, a complete reworking of the classic " The wonders of the heavens ", which was released in 1834 by Joseph Johann von Littrow first time.

Writings

  • Principles and methods of the research period. Berlin 1937
  • Determination and reality of periodicities. Correlation calculation. In: Handbook of Geophysics. 1940
  • Panels and tasks for harmonic analysis and Periodogrammrechnung. Berlin, 1939
  • New theory and methods of the ephemeris. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 1947
  • New approaches for path computation of the heavenly bodies. In: Progress in physics. Vol.1, 1954, pp. 557-596
  • Geographical location regulations. In: College books for physics. Berlin 1955
  • Celestial mechanics. 3 volumes, German Academic Publishers, Berlin in 1959, 1965, 1974
  • The earth as a planet. 1939, 1955
  • The movement of heaven. Stuttgart 1942, 1944
  • Complete reworking of Joseph Johann von Littrows The wonders of the heavens. Bonn 1963 ( total 11 edition of this book )
  • Fischer Encyclopedia astronomy. 1957 1972
  • Astronomy against astrology. 1955
Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein Astrophysics Data System Integrated Authority File
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