Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve (1793-1864) (original) (raw)

Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve (April 15, 1793 - November 23, 1864)

Born in Altona, died in Pulkowo.

Honored by the naming of asteroid 768 Struvena, together with his son, astronomer Otto Wilhelm von Struve (1819-1905), his grandson astronomer Karl Hermann von Struve (1854-1920), and the Struve family. Asteroid 768 Struvena has been discovered on Octover 4, 1913 by G. Neujmin at Simeis, and provisinally designated A913 TC.

Struve's List of 9 "Nebulae"

In his Catalog of Double and Multiple Stars (Struve 1827, p. 88), Struve also gives a tabel of the 9 "nebulae" he discovered, 4 of them original discoveries:

R.A. (1826) Dec                       D    Id

1 0:33.4 +39:56 M32 2 1:25.3 +72: 0 ! NGC 629 3 9:49.2 +69:33 NGC 3077 (H I.286) 4 13: 4.4 +19: 5 M53 5 16:57.3 +24: 7 ! NGC 6210 6 18: 3.8 + 6:50 ! NGC 6572 7 18:24.0 +54:55 ! NGC 6648 (Struve 2332) 8 20:54.5 -12: 0 NGC 7009 (H IV.1) 9 21:21.6 +11:27 M15

Key:

RA, Dec (1826)

Right Ascension and Declination for 1826 as given by Struve

D

Discovery: "!" marks an original discovery by Struve

Id

Modern Identification

Moreover, the main part of his "Catalogus" of double stars contains four more objects which found their way into the NGC:

Number R.A. (1826) Dec D Id

WSt 131 1:22.2 +59:48 M103 WSt 885 6: 7.0 +59:50 ! NGC 2202 (h 385) [Open Cluster in Ori] WSt 2630 19:59.6 +35:16 NGC 6871 (h 2067) [Open Cluster in Cyg] WSt 2631 19:59.8 +20:37 ! NGC 6873 (h 2068) [Group of Stars in Sge]

Transcript of his entries on these objects in Catalogus:

Number A.R. Decl Descriptio Num CP

WSt 131 1h 22.2 +59 48 III. (5) (8). Maxima acervi. WSt 885 6h 7.0 +59 50 I. et IV. (8) (8.9) (10). WSt 2630 19h 59.6 +35 16 Plures III. et IV. in acervo. 658 WSt 2631 19h 59.8 +20 37 I. II. (8) (9.10), maxima acervi, Etiam S. 732.

We see that Wilhelm Struve includes rediscoveries of 4 Messier Objects:M32 (No. 1), M53 (No. 4), M15 (No. 9), and (in the main catalog) M103 (WSt 131).

Links

• Wilhelm Struve images and information, NGC/IC observers page
• Asteroid 768 Struvena (JPL SSD Small-Body Database) References
• F.G.W. Struve, 1827. Catalogus Novus Stellarum Duplicarum et Multiplicarum. J.C. Schuenmann, Dorpat, 1827. [ADS: 1827cnsd.book.....S].
  Available online (MDZ Münchner DigitalisierungsZentrum)
• Kenneth Glyn Jones, 1991. Messier's Nebulae and Star Clusters. 2nd ed, Cambridge University Press, p. 341. [ADS: 1991mnsc.book.....J].

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