Karl Wilhelm Valentiner

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Johann Valentiner ( born February 22, 1845 in Eckernförde, † April 1, 1931 in Berlebeck near Detmold ) was a German astronomer.

Life

Valentiner went to 1863 the Thomas School in Leipzig. After the PhD. Valentiner 1874 took part in a successful German expedition to observe a solar eclipse by Tschifu (China). In 1875 he took over the management of the Mannheim Observatory. Since the observation conditions in the inner city of Mannheim have been getting worse, Valentiner operating the relocation of the observatory to Karlsruhe ( Volkssternwarte Karlsruhe ), which was approved in 1880 by Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden. The telescopes had to be temporarily housed in a cabin in Karlsruhe Nymphenburg Park, however. Much to the annoyance of Valentiner, who had meanwhile been appointed a professor at the Technical University of Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe was erected in a new observatory, because you had chosen a location on the royal chair at Heidelberg.

After the establishment of the " Grand Ducal Mountain Observatory " (now Heidelberg State Observatory king chair) in 1898 Valentiner took over the Department of astrometry, which was in competition with the astrophysical department at Max Wolf. 1909 Emeritus Valentiner, and the two departments were merged under the direction of Wolf. He was also a professor of astronomy at the Ruprecht -Karls- University of Heidelberg.

He was married to Anna Elisabeth Isis, born Lepsius (1848-1919), daughter of Carl Richard Lepsius. The physicist Siegfried Valentiner and the art historian Wilhelm Reinhold Valentiner were sons of the couple.

Works

• Dictionary of Astronomy in four volumes, Wroclaw ( digitized: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Part 1, Volume 3, Part 2, Volume 4 )
• Astronomical images, Leipzig, 1881