Albert Marth

Albert Marth (May 5, 1828 – August 6, 1897)[1] was a German astronomer who worked in England and Ireland.

Albert Marth.

Life

After studying theology at the University of Berlin, his interest in astronomy and mathematics led him to study astronomy under C. A. F. Peters at the University of Königsberg.[2]

Marth went to England in 1853 to work for George Bishop, a rich wine merchant and patron of astronomy, who financed a London observatory (in operation from 1836 to 1861). At that time, paid jobs in astronomy were quite rare.

He worked as William Lassell's assistant in Malta, discovering 600 nebulae. He also discovered one of the earlier asteroids found, 29 Amphitrite, and the galaxies NGC 3, NGC 4 and NGC 15.

He also did work in double stars, discovering NGC 30 in 1864.

From 1883 to 1897 he worked at the Markree Observatory in Ireland where he was the second director appointed in its second period of operation.[3]

He made extensive ephemerides of solar system bodies. He even performed calculations of transits of various planets from other planets, predicting transits of Earth from Mars and many others.

Craters on the Moon and Mars are named for him. The crater Marth on the Moon is about 3 km in diameter.

References
  1. Roger Hutchins, ‘Marth, Albert (1828–1897)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 4 Jan 2013
  2. Dreyer, J. L. E. (1897). "Obituary Notice - Albert Marth". Astronomische Nachrichten. 144: 223. doi:10.1002/asna.18971441305.
  3. Steinicke, Wolfgang (2010). Observing and Cataloguing Nebulae and Star Clusters: From Herschel to Dreyer's New General Catalogue. Cambridge University Press. p. 137. ISBN 9780521192675.

Albert Marth in libraries (WorldCat catalog)


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