Ladislaus Weinek

Ladislaus Weinek, Hungarian also Weinek László, ( born February 13, 1848 in Oven, today Budapest, † 12 November 1913 in Prague ) was an Austro- Hungarian astronomer.

Life

He was born as the fourth child of Joseph and Johanna Weinek. His father was an official in the Hungarian Ministry of Education. After Ladislaus Weinek 1865 had completed high school in oven with very good performance and get a scholarship, he studied at the University of Vienna mathematics, physics and astronomy. After a short stint as a tutor to Count Heinrich Wilczek he graduated in 1870 from the high-school teacher training examination in mathematics and physics. Equipped with a travel grant from the Ministry of Culture in 1871, he studied one and a half semesters Astronomy at the Friedrich- Wilhelms- University of Berlin, where he had close contacts with Wilhelm Foerster. He then continued his studies at Karl Christian Bruhns in Leipzig. As an Observer at the Observatory Leipzig he was involved in geodetic work, such as the determination of the longitude difference between Leipzig and Great grove and between Leipzig and Munich.

In October 1869, the German Commission for observing the transit of Venus of 1874 had decided to carry out experiments with the photographic telescope to determine " made ​​whether and by what method solar images of sufficient clarity and immutability and how the same may be measured with sufficient reliability ." The essential work led the geodesic Friedrich Paschen from Schwerin. Weinek was appointed in 1873 as Deputy Head of the photographic Research Institute Schwerin, taking over after the death Paschen line. In Schwerin Castle Garden he tested the set up there by the end of 1873, the observatory to use photographic processes and trained in the spring of 1874 additional participants of the planned German expeditions. In addition, he sought advice from Hermann Carl Vogel at the observatory Bothkamp to ask the sun photography and spent two months at the beginning of 1874 August Winnecke at the University of Strasbourg in order to learn how to use the Heliometer. On June 21, 1874 Weinek left the port of Kiel on the corvette SMS Gazelle which brought the expedition led by astronomer Karl barrows on the Kerguelen Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. On 9 December, the transit of Venus was observed and documented by Weinek in 60 high quality photographs. For later travel reports made ​​to the talented Weinek drawings of the alien nature and landscape. After his return from the Kerguelen Islands, he was Hauptobservator the Leipzig Observatory. In the following years he led among others by the Measurements and discussion of all recorded by the German expeditions to observe the transit of Venus photographs. The resulting therefrom essay "Photography in the measured astronomy, particularly at Venus passing programs", he became in 1880 a doctorate at the University of Jena.

As 1882 Heinrich Bruns took office as the new Director of the University Observatory Leipzig, Weinek submitted his resignation. After transient activity in the private observatory August Auerbach (1813-1886) in Gohlis and the observation of the recent transit of Venus on December 6, 1882 in the observatory of Baron Basil von Engelhardt ( 1828-1915 ) in Dresden was Weinek 1883 Professor of Astronomy at the German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague called. At the same time he was Director of the University Observatory in Clementinum, but that was in a neglected state. Weineks activity was directed, therefore, at first, to make structural improvements. Thus, the new Meridian Room, from 1889 Polhöhenmessungen undertook from which Weinek to provide first in association with the observatories in Berlin, Potsdam and Strasbourg, and later with many, and foreign observatories, the detection of devices found by Karl Friedrich Küstner precession of the Earth's axis was.

As early as 1890 Weinek had come out with forty -consuming moon drawings that earned him great recognition. The California Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, which had the largest refractor of time, put him up to 3000-fold enlarged photographs of the moon available. By means of an apparatus, which he had from precision mechanics Gustav Heyde (1846-1930) in Dresden customize Weinek put them into accurate drawings. There were photographs, which provided him with the Observatory of Columbia College in New York and available from 1893 Slides from moon shots that were taken at the Paris Observatory. A donation of American millionaire Catherine Wolfe Bruce of U.S. $ 1,000 allowed him finally, from 1897 to 1900 a " Photographic Moon Atlas " issue of 200 sheets at a scale of Moon diameter of 10 feet.

After his short-lived marriage, Weinek had in the spring of 1885, the opera singer married Stephanie Berman, who died already on 13 September of the same year, Weinek lived a very retired and devoted himself exclusively to his work.

Honors

Weinek was included in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and in 1990 into the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 1879. The Berkeley University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1893.

After Weinek a bay of the Kerguelen Island and the lunar crater Weinek are named, as well as the asteroid ( 7114 ) Weinek.

Writings (selection )

• Ladislaus Weinek: The photograph in the measured astronomy, particularly at Venus passing programs. In: Nova Acta of Ks,. Leop. - Carol. - German Academy of Sciences 70, 1879, pp. 33-148
• Ladislaus Weinek: Enlarged Drawings from Lunar Photographs taken at the Lick Observatory. In: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 3, 1891, pp. 333-344 (online)
• Ladislaus Weinek: A photographic lunar atlas: mainly carried out on the basis of focalen negatives of the Lick Observatory in the scale of a Moon diameter of 10 feet, Carl Bellmann, Prague 1897-1900
• Ladislaus Weinek: Definitive results of the Prague Polhöhenmessungen 1889-1892 and 1895-1899 Hasse, Prague 1903.