Martin Brendel

Otto Rudolf Martin Brendel ( born August 12, 1862 in Niederschoenhausen in Berlin, † September 6, 1939 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German astronomer.

After graduating from a high school in 1883, following his studies of mathematics and astronomy led him to Berlin, Munich, Stockholm, Paris and London. In 1890 he received his doctoral degree. In the winter of 1891/92 he undertook with Otto Baschin an expedition to Bossekop at Alta Fjord (Norway ) to perform magnetic measurements and auroral observations. Here on the 70th Latitude them get on 1 February 1892, the first known photographs of the Northern Lights. After a stopover in Potsdam he put 1892 Habilitation in astronomy in Greifswald from and taught there as a lecturer. In 1898 he was associate professor of theoretical astronomy and geodesy in Göttingen. In 1907 he was appointed to Frankfurt to the Academy for Social and Business Studies to teach mathematics and Actuarial Science there.

In 1908 there assigned to it by the Physics Club, the director of the observatory. With the opening of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in 1914, the Academy for Social and Business Studies, as well as all institutions of the Physical Society, where Brendel had worked until then, part of the University. Brendel was appointed professor of astronomy and insurance mathematics and was (or was ) director of the observatory and the Department of Actuarial Science. He held until his retirement in 1927, this professorship. In addition, he headed the planet Institute was founded in 1913. He also participated in 1920-22 in addition true nor a lectureship in Actuarial Science at the University of Giessen.

His main area of ​​work was the celestial mechanics, one of the most complex issues at all. Specializing he had while on orbit determination of asteroids. In addition to theoretical astronomy but he also dealt with astronomical observations, especially of asteroids, comets and double stars. He also constructed a rotating camera for photometry of bright stars.

He developed the "Theory of the Small Planet" and was in the period 1898-1911 a corresponding four -part work out. In 1894 he received to do so by the Paris Academy of Sciences of the Damoseau price. 1904 Brendel was appointed a member of the Leopoldina.

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