Oswald Thomas

Oswald Thomas ( born July 27, 1882 in Brasov, Hungary, today Romania, † February 13, 1963 in Vienna, Austria ) was an astronomer and university professor. He founded the Austrian Astroverein and the Vienna Planetarium.

Life

Enthusiastic early age by his father for Astronomy, Oswald Thomas studied after attending high school in Kronstadt, astronomy, mathematics and physics in Heidelberg, Jena, where he became in 1902 a member of the fraternity Arminia on the castle cellar, Cluj and Berlin. From 1906 to 1913 Thomas Oswald worked in Kronstadt, then he moved to Vienna. In May 1907 he founded a " collection point for meteor messages", the Astronomical office, which moved in 1913 to Vienna with him.

At first he was in Vienna school professor and simultaneously from 1915-22 director of the Urania Observatory. In 1924 he founded the " Austrian Astronomical Association" and in 1927 the Vienna Planetarium was built on his initiative, the first Zeiss planetarium outside Germany. In 1941, Thomas taught astronomy at the University of Vienna.

In wide circles was Oswald Thomas through its over 1000 "Star evenings " and its extended "star walks " along the summer path Haide known, a ridge on the western outskirts. His idea of an " open air planetarium " 1997-2001 was realized by his pupil Hermann Mucke as star garden in the south of Vienna.

Honors

1960 awarded him the Viennese Academic fraternity Silesia the honor band.

In 1974 ( 2nd District ) Oswald -Thomas -Platz was named as the forecourt of the planetarium after him in the Prater amusement park in Vienna Leopoldstadt.

2004 Asteroid ( 29427 ) Oswald Thomas was named in his honor.