Johann Heinrich von Mädler
Encyclopedia
Johann Heinrich von Mädler (May 29, 1794 – March 14, 1874) was a German astronomer
.
He was orphaned at age 19 by an outbreak of typhus
, and found himself responsible for raising three younger sisters. He began giving academic lessons as a private tutor and in this way met Wilhelm Beer, a wealthy banker in 1824.
In 1829 Beer decided to set up a private observatory with a 95 mm refractor telescope made by Joseph von Fraunhofer
, and Mädler worked there. In 1830 they began producing drawings of Mars
which later became the first true maps of that planet. They were the first to choose what is today known as Sinus Meridiani
as the prime meridian
for Mars maps.
They made a preliminary determination for Mars' rotation period
, which was off by almost 13 seconds. A later determination in 1837 was off by only 1.1 seconds.
They also produced the first exact map of the Moon
, Mappa Selenographica, published in four volumes in 1834–1836. In 1837 a description of the Moon (Der Mond) was published. Both were the best descriptions of the Moon for many decades, not superseded until the map of Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt
in the 1870s. Beer and Mädler drew the firm conclusion that the features on the Moon do not change, and there is no atmosphere or water.
In 1836, Johann Franz Encke
appointed Mädler an observer at the Berlin Observatory
, and he observed with its 240-mm refractor. In 1840, Mädler was appointed director of the Dorpat (Tartu) Observatory
in Estonia
, succeeding Friedrich Wilhelm Struve who had moved to Pulkovo Observatory
. He carried out meteorological
as well as astronomical observations. He continued Struve's observations of double star
s. He remained in Tartu until he retired in 1865, and then returned to Germany.
By examining the proper motion
s of stars, he came up with his "Central Sun Hypothesis", according to which the center of the galaxy was located in the Pleiades
star cluster
and that the Sun
revolves around it. He got the location wrong.
He published many scientific works, among the two-volume History of Descriptive Astronomy in 1873.
Notwithstanding several singular scientific errors is J. H. von Mädler, without doubt, one of the great and eminent astronomers of the 19th century. The craters Mädler
on the Moon and Mädler
on Mars are both named in his honor.
with precisions never attained before, though this fact is little known. Based on his results, he proposed to Russia
, which at this time used the conventional tropic year according to Sosigenes of Alexandria
of exactly 365 days 6 hours (cf. Julian Calendar
), besides dropping 12 days to equal Gregorian Calendar
dates in the year 1900, but then, first proposed by von Mädler himself, a new 128-year rule for additional common years. (The only odd thing in Mädler's proposal was, that neither the year 1900, nor 2028, 2156 etc. [=1900 +128 +128...] were themselves divisible by 128.)
But (according to von Mädler) if the years 3200, 6400, 9600, 12,800, 16,000 and so on are NOT leap years the duration of the mean Gregorian year will then be 365.2421875 days (10,000 divided by 3200 gives 3.125) and this approaches very close the real duration of the mean tropical year which lasts 365.24219 days. So that a very little error of only 3.125 - 3.100 = 0.025 days in 10,000 years will then be made.
Neither the Tsar nor Orthodox clergy accepted this unsolicited proposal. After the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Lenin adopted the western (papal) calendar, with its conventional tropic year of 365.2425 days (i.e. 365d. 5h 49min. 12s) due to Christopher Clavius
(1537-1612). But this was astronomically true about 6000 years ago. The conventional tropical year according to Simon Newcomb
(1835-1909) was 365.2422 days (= 365d. 5h 48min. 46.08s). But this is no more than an approximate value. The real tropical year 2000.0 (measured by Pierre Bretagnon) was 365.242190517 days, that is about 365d. 5h 48min. 45.26s. That is also very close to the conventional tropic year according to von Mädler: 36531⁄128 or 365.2421875 days, exactly 365d. 5h 48min. and 45s or 365d. 6h. minus 11min 15s. But because the real tropical year shortens about half a second per century, this will exactly attain the von Mädler proposed value in only a few decades. Thus, we can well expect that yet we can count on the conventional tropic year according to von Mädler.
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
.
He was orphaned at age 19 by an outbreak of typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
, and found himself responsible for raising three younger sisters. He began giving academic lessons as a private tutor and in this way met Wilhelm Beer, a wealthy banker in 1824.
In 1829 Beer decided to set up a private observatory with a 95 mm refractor telescope made by Joseph von Fraunhofer
Joseph von Fraunhofer
Joseph von Fraunhofer was a German optician. He is known for the discovery of the dark absorption lines known as Fraunhofer lines in the Sun's spectrum, and for making excellent optical glass and achromatic telescope objectives.-Biography:Fraunhofer was born in Straubing, Bavaria...
, and Mädler worked there. In 1830 they began producing drawings of Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
which later became the first true maps of that planet. They were the first to choose what is today known as Sinus Meridiani
Sinus Meridiani
Sinus Meridiani is a feature name for an albedo feature on Mars stretching east-west just south of that planet's equator. It was named by the French astronomer Camille Flammarion in the late 1870s.-Observational History:...
as the prime meridian
Prime Meridian
The Prime Meridian is the meridian at which the longitude is defined to be 0°.The Prime Meridian and its opposite the 180th meridian , which the International Date Line generally follows, form a great circle that divides the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.An international...
for Mars maps.
They made a preliminary determination for Mars' rotation period
Rotation period
The rotation period of an astronomical object is the time it takes to complete one revolution around its axis of rotation relative to the background stars...
, which was off by almost 13 seconds. A later determination in 1837 was off by only 1.1 seconds.
They also produced the first exact map of the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
, Mappa Selenographica, published in four volumes in 1834–1836. In 1837 a description of the Moon (Der Mond) was published. Both were the best descriptions of the Moon for many decades, not superseded until the map of Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt
Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt
Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt was a German astronomer and geophysicist.-Biography:...
in the 1870s. Beer and Mädler drew the firm conclusion that the features on the Moon do not change, and there is no atmosphere or water.
In 1836, Johann Franz Encke
Johann Franz Encke
Johann Franz Encke was a German astronomer. Among his activities, he worked on the calculation of the periods of comets and asteroids, measured the distance from the earth to the sun, and made observations on the planet Saturn.-Biography:Encke was born in Hamburg, where his father was a...
appointed Mädler an observer at the Berlin Observatory
Berlin Observatory
The Berlin Observatory is a series of observatories and related organizations in and around the city of Berlin in Germany, starting from the 18th century...
, and he observed with its 240-mm refractor. In 1840, Mädler was appointed director of the Dorpat (Tartu) Observatory
Tartu Observatory
The Tartu Observatory is the largest astronomical observatory in Estonia. It is located on the Tõravere hill, about 20 km south-west of Tartu in Nõo Parish, Tartu County...
in Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, succeeding Friedrich Wilhelm Struve who had moved to Pulkovo Observatory
Pulkovo Observatory
The Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory астрономи́ческая обсервато́рия Росси́йской акаде́мии нау́к), the principal astronomical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, located 19 km south of Saint Petersburg on Pulkovo Heights...
. He carried out meteorological
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
as well as astronomical observations. He continued Struve's observations of double star
Double star
In observational astronomy, a double star is a pair of stars that appear close to each other in the sky as seen from Earth when viewed through an optical telescope. This can happen either because the pair forms a binary star, i.e...
s. He remained in Tartu until he retired in 1865, and then returned to Germany.
By examining the proper motion
Proper motion
The proper motion of a star is its angular change in position over time as seen from the center of mass of the solar system. It is measured in seconds of arc per year, arcsec/yr, where 3600 arcseconds equal one degree. This contrasts with radial velocity, which is the time rate of change in...
s of stars, he came up with his "Central Sun Hypothesis", according to which the center of the galaxy was located in the Pleiades
Pleiades (star cluster)
In astronomy, the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters , is an open star cluster containing middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky...
star cluster
Star cluster
Star clusters or star clouds are groups of stars. Two types of star clusters can be distinguished: globular clusters are tight groups of hundreds of thousands of very old stars which are gravitationally bound, while open clusters, more loosely clustered groups of stars, generally contain less than...
and that the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
revolves around it. He got the location wrong.
He published many scientific works, among the two-volume History of Descriptive Astronomy in 1873.
Notwithstanding several singular scientific errors is J. H. von Mädler, without doubt, one of the great and eminent astronomers of the 19th century. The craters Mädler
Mädler (lunar crater)
Mädler is a lunar impact crater located on the mare that joins Sinus Asperitatis in the north to Mare Nectaris to the southeast. To the west is the prominent crater Theophilus, and Mädler lies amidst the outer rampart....
on the Moon and Mädler
Mädler (Martian crater)
Mädler is a crater on Mars named in honor of the German astronomer Johann Heinrich Mädler. It is located at 2.7°E 10.7°S.Mädler and collaborator Wilhelm Beer produced the first reasonably good maps of Mars in the early 1830s. When doing so, they selected a particular feature for the prime meridian...
on Mars are both named in his honor.
The conventional tropical year according to von Mädler
Next to his other numerous and important works, von Mädler made calculations concerning the true length of the tropical yearTropical year
A tropical year , for general purposes, is the length of time that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the cycle of seasons, as seen from Earth; for example, the time from vernal equinox to vernal equinox, or from summer solstice to summer solstice...
with precisions never attained before, though this fact is little known. Based on his results, he proposed to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, which at this time used the conventional tropic year according to Sosigenes of Alexandria
Sosigenes of Alexandria
Sosigenes of Alexandria was named by Pliny the Elder as the astronomer consulted by Julius Caesar for the design of the Julian calendar. Little is known about him apart from Pliny's Natural History...
of exactly 365 days 6 hours (cf. Julian Calendar
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar began in 45 BC as a reform of the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar. It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year .The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months...
), besides dropping 12 days to equal Gregorian Calendar
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...
dates in the year 1900, but then, first proposed by von Mädler himself, a new 128-year rule for additional common years. (The only odd thing in Mädler's proposal was, that neither the year 1900, nor 2028, 2156 etc. [=1900 +128 +128...] were themselves divisible by 128.)
But (according to von Mädler) if the years 3200, 6400, 9600, 12,800, 16,000 and so on are NOT leap years the duration of the mean Gregorian year will then be 365.2421875 days (10,000 divided by 3200 gives 3.125) and this approaches very close the real duration of the mean tropical year which lasts 365.24219 days. So that a very little error of only 3.125 - 3.100 = 0.025 days in 10,000 years will then be made.
Neither the Tsar nor Orthodox clergy accepted this unsolicited proposal. After the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Lenin adopted the western (papal) calendar, with its conventional tropic year of 365.2425 days (i.e. 365d. 5h 49min. 12s) due to Christopher Clavius
Christopher Clavius
Christopher Clavius was a German Jesuit mathematician and astronomer who was the main architect of the modern Gregorian calendar...
(1537-1612). But this was astronomically true about 6000 years ago. The conventional tropical year according to Simon Newcomb
Simon Newcomb
Simon Newcomb was a Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician. Though he had little conventional schooling, he made important contributions to timekeeping as well as writing on economics and statistics and authoring a science fiction novel.-Early life:Simon Newcomb was born in the town of...
(1835-1909) was 365.2422 days (= 365d. 5h 48min. 46.08s). But this is no more than an approximate value. The real tropical year 2000.0 (measured by Pierre Bretagnon) was 365.242190517 days, that is about 365d. 5h 48min. 45.26s. That is also very close to the conventional tropic year according to von Mädler: 36531⁄128 or 365.2421875 days, exactly 365d. 5h 48min. and 45s or 365d. 6h. minus 11min 15s. But because the real tropical year shortens about half a second per century, this will exactly attain the von Mädler proposed value in only a few decades. Thus, we can well expect that yet we can count on the conventional tropic year according to von Mädler.
External links
- Frank J. TiplerFrank J. TiplerFrank Jennings Tipler is a mathematical physicist and cosmologist, holding a joint appointment in the Departments of Mathematics and Physics at Tulane University. Tipler has authored books and papers on the Omega Point, which he claims is a mechanism for the resurrection of the dead. It has been...
, "Olbers's Paradox, the Beginning of Creation, and Johann Mädler," Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 19, Pt. 1 (February 1988), pp. 45-48. - F. J. Tipler, "Johann Mädler's Resolution of Olbers' Paradox," Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 29, No. 3 (September 1988), pp. 313-325.
- Frank J. Tipler, "More on Olbers's Paradox," a review of Edward Harrison, Darkness at Night: A Riddle of the Universe (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 19, Pt. 4 (November 1988), pp. 284-286. (Note that the last page is missing in the PDF version of the article at the foregoing link, but is contained in the GIF version.)
- http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/onlinebks/mars/chap04.htm
- http://www.obs.ee/obs/maedler/maedler.html