List E

Eastman

Eastman

Easton, Cornelius ( - 1929) BEA
Died 3 Jun 1929, Obs 52 (1929) 338

Ebell, M. ( - 1944)
Neuruppin died 28 November 1944.  Source: Himmelswelt 55 (1948).

Eberhard, Christoph (1675 - 1730)
C. Eberhard was born around 1675. Together with Christoph Semler he build an instrument to determine the geographical latitude and longitude. After being a clergyman with the Russian army he went to Denmark, was vice president of Altona (today a part of Hamburg) and then returned to Russia. He died in Halle in 1730.

Eckebrecht, Philipp (1594 - 1667)
P. Eckebrecht was born on the 11. February 1594 in Nürnberg and earned a living as a well doing merchant. He communicated with Trew and Kepler and drew a Planisphere for the latters ‘Tabulis astronomicis’ (1630). Eckebrecht had also works by Simon Marius and Joh. Regiomontan printed on his own expense. He died in Nürnberg on the 5. March 1667.

Eckert, Wallace J. (1902 - 1971) BEA

Eckhardt, Christian Ludwig Philipp (1783 - )
C. L. P. Eckhardt was born in Dauernheim, Hesse, in 1783. He was a civil engineer and worked as a surveyor in the Duchy of Westphalen. Eckhardt reported on his geodetic observations in von Zach’s Monthly Correspondence and in the AN, including texts on the size and form of the earth and on formulae to calculate Moon distances.

Eddington, Sir Arthur Stanley (1882 - 1944)
Cambridge, England, died 22 November 1944.  Source: Himmelswelt 55 (1948).

Edrisi, Abdallah Mohammed (1099 - 1180)
A. M. Edrisi was born around 1099 in Ceuta. As a geographer and astronomer he wrote ‘Naschat etc.’ and ‘Geographia Nubiensis’, both works on geography. He died around 1180 in Sicily.

Eggen, ()
mentioned in: Lightman and Brawer: The Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists.

Eggert, O. ( - 1944)
Potsdam, died 20 January 1944.  Source: Himmelswelt 55 (1948).

Eichhorn, Johann Aegidius (1724 - 1787)
J. A. Eichhorn was born in Nürnberg on the 10. August 1724. He worked in his home town as a teacher of mathematics at the Aegidien-Gymnasium. In 1764 he published two papers, one on the Venus transit of 6. June 1761 and the other on the solar eclipse of 1. April 1764.

Eichhorn died in Nürnberg on the 19. November 1787.

Eichstadius [Eichstadt], Laurentius [Lorenz] (1596 - 1660) BEA
L. Eichstadius was born in Stettin on 10 August 1596 (old calendar). He worked as a physician in Stettin and published ephemerides for the sun and moon for the years 1636-1640 and for the planets for 1636-1650.

Another paper was on the conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in 1623, when their angular distance was only 5 arc minutes. His observations of lunar eclipses were mentioned by Riccioli. Eichstadius died in Danzig on 8 June 1660.

Eimbke, Georg (1771 - 1843)
G. Eimbke was born in Hamburg on the 17. December 1771 (1772?). He had a doctorate in philosophy as well as in medicine and worked as docent at the university in Kiel. Between 1797 and 1806 he was inspector at the saltworks near Oldeslohe and then pharmacist in Hamburg. He published some astronomical observations in Bode’s annual book in the years 1799, 1803, 1806 and 1809.

Eimbke died in Eppendorf, today part of Hamburg, on the 20. April 1843.

Eimmart, Georg Christoph (1638 - 1705)
G. C. Eimmart was born in Regensburg on the 22. August 1638 and worked as a copperplate engraver and astronomer after studying mathematics and law in Altdorf and Jena. He built a private observatory where he worked with his wife Maria Clara. Eimmart published, beside other works, a lunar map and ‘Observationes circumjov.’.

He died in Nürnberg on the 5. January 1705. A crater on the moon is named Eimmart in his honor.

Eimmart, Maria Clara (1676 - 1707)
M. C. Eimmart was born as the daughter of G. C. Eimmart in Nürnberg on the 27. March 1676. She worked as observing and calculating astronomer and married the physicist J. H. Müller of Altdorf in 1706. Beside assisting her husband she was able to do own observations and made some detailled drawings of the Moon and of the annular eclipse of 12. May 1706.

M. C. Eimmart died on the 28. October 1707 on puerperal fever.

Eisenlohr, Wilhelm (1799 - 1872)
W. Eisenlohr was born in Pforzheim on the 1. January 1799. He was a physicist and, after Nikolai’s death, acting director of the Mannheim observatory until 1859, when Schönfeld was nominated as director. Eisenlohr died in Karlsruhe in 1872.

Eisinga, Eise (ca. 1764 - 1828)
E. Eisinga was born around 1764. He was member of the town council in Franeker and built a planetarium that was described by J.H. v. Swinden in 1780.

E. Eisinga died in Franeker on the 27. August 1828.

Ekama, Cornelis (1773 - 1826)
C. Ekama was born in Paesens, Frisia, on the 31. March 1773. He was professor of mathematics and astronomy at the university in Franeker and later in Leiden. C. Ekama died in Leiden on the 24. February 1826.

Eklöf, Johann Henrik (1819 - )
J. H. Eklöf was born in Kuhmo, Finland, on the 22. May 1819. He worked at the observatory in Helsingfors and later as teacher in Åbo.

Elias Ben Moseh [Karaita] (15. Century)
Elias Ben Moseh was astronomer in Constantinople in the second half of the 15. century. He made astronomical tables for the latitude of his town.

Ellery, R. J. ()
Was astronomer and director at the Melbourne observatory and concentrated on lunar observations. He made some good lunar photographies.

Ellicott, Andrew (ca. 1753 - 1820)
A. Ellicott was born in Pennsylvania in 1753. He was professor of mathematics at the military academy in West Point and published some astronomical observations, including one on meteorites and one on the nutation of the earths axis. Ellicott died in West Point on the 28. August 1820.

Elmer, Charles W. (1871 - 1954)

Elvius, Peter [Pehr] (1660 - 1718)
P. Elvius was born in Dalarne on the 24. September 1660. He was professor of mathematics and astronomy at the university in Upsala. He died there on the 12. January 1718.

Elvius, Peter [Pehr] (1710 - 1749)
P. Elvius was born in 1710 in Upsala. He is the son of P. Elvius (1660-1718) and wrote papers about pendulum clocks. P. Elvius suggested to erect an observatory at Stockholm, which was completed on the 20. September 1753, almost 4 years after his death on the 27. September 1749 (old calendar).

Emden, Robert ( - 1940) BEA
died 8 Oct 1940, Himmelswelt 55 (1948) 104

Emerson, William (1701 - 1782)
W. Emerson was born in Harworth on the 14. May 1701 and lived near Darlington in northern England. Emerson seems to have lived from a small fortune. In 1769 he wrote ‘The Elements of Optics’ and ‘A System of Astronomy’. In 1770 ‘A short comment to Sir I. Newtons Principia’ followed. Emerson died on the 26. may 1782.

Emery, Josiah [Joseph] ( - 1794)
J. Emery was born in Neuchatel and worked in London as a maker of chronometers as reported in Bode’s yearbook of 1797, p. 250. His works are described by Poppe in ‘Geschichte der Technologie’, Vol. 2, p. 138. Emery died on the 2. July 1794.

Emmanuele, Pietro ( - 1669)
P. Emmanuele lived in Sicily as a cleric, astronomer and alchimist. He died on the 6. October 1669.

Encke, Johann Franz (1791 - 1865)
Johann Franz Encke was born on 23. September 1791 in Hamburg. His father was Johann Michael (1749-95), his mother Marie, née Misler (1755-1811).

From 1811 on Encke studied mathematics in Göttingen as pupil of C.F. Gauss. In May 1816 he moved to Seeberg near Gotha to work as observer at the observatory there. In 1822 he was promoted Director of that observatory and in 1825 followed a call to be the Director of the Observatory at Berlin. He supervised the new construction of the observatory from 1832-35. In 1844 he became ordinary Professor at the University of Berlin and was allowed to lecture without receiving a doctorate.

Probably best known is his calculation of a cometary orbit. Encke followed a suggestion by J.-L. Pons, who suspected one of the three comets discovered in 1818 to be the one already discovered by Encke in 1805, and calculated the elements of the orbit. The comet was found to have a period of 3.3. years and Encke predicted its return for 1822. This return was only observable from the southern hemisphere and seen by K. Ruemker from Australia. In 1825 Encke was visited by K. Knorre, who joined him for observations of the comet during this years return at the Seeberg Observatory near Gotha.

The importance of the predicted return based on the calculation by Encke was rewarded by the Astronomical Society in London by presenting the gold medal to him in 1823. In this year Encke married Amalie Becker (1787-1879), daughter of a bookseller. They had three sons and two daughters.

During Encke's directorship the work at the Berlin observatory concentrated on the calculation of the orbits of asteroids and the influence of the big planets on these orbits. 1846 J.G. Galle discovered the planet Neptune with the help of star charts edited by Encke. Encke, with the help of his assistants J.P. Wolfers and Bremiker, also published 37 volumes (1830-66) of the 'Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch', an annual publication. These contain some still valuable articles on the problems of the calculating astronomy.

Encke died in Spandau, near Berlin, on 28. August 1865. He is honored by a lunar crater named after him. An 1838 discovered division between the A- and F-ring around the planet Saturn also bears his name (Encke gap).

References:
1. KOPFF, A., in: Neue Deutsche Biographie, Vol. 4, p. 489-90
2. FREIESLEBEN, H.C., in: Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. 4, p. 369-70
3. AUDOUZE, J. & ISRAËL, G., Cambridge Atlas of Astronomy, 3. Ed., p. 110

Engelhardt, Bas., Baron von (1828 - )
B. Engelmann was born in Smolensk in 1828. He owned a private observatory in Dresden and observed comets and sunspots. His observatory was equipped with some very good instruments for astronomical work. Engelhardt also collected physical instruments of all kinds.

Engelmann, Rudolf (1841 - )
Astronomer at the Leipzig observatory. He published his observations of planets, comets, double stars and occultations in the AN.

Engeström, Jöns Albin (1787 - 1846)
J. A. Engeström was born on the 29. March 1787 in Blekingen. He was docent for mathematics and astronomy at the university of Lund. He died there on the 17. July 1846.

Englefield, Sir Henry Charles (ca. 1752 - 1822)
H. C. Englefield was born around 1752. He was Baronet of White Knights near Reading and member of the Royal Society. He wrote, beside other papers, ‘On the comet of 1661 whose return is expected in 1789’ (London, 1788) and ‘Method of adjusting a transit instrument’.

H. C. Englefield died on the 21. March 1822 in London.

Epigenes

Epp, Franz Xaver (1733 - 1789)

Epps, James (1773 - 1839)

Eratosthenes of Syene (275 - 195 B.C.)
Eratosthenes was born in Syene and worked as astronomer and librarian at the library in Alexandria. From observations of the length of the shadows he determined the circumference of the Earth. The inclination of the ecliptic was found by him to be 23° 46’. Aged 80 he became blind and, because he could no longer see the stars, stopped eating and starved to death .

Erfle, Heinrich (1884 - 1923)
Heinrich Valentin Erfle was born on April, 11th 1884 in Duerkheim, Germany, to his father Heinrich Johann (1848-1896) and mother Marie Stolleis (1849-1923). Erfle married Ilse Rittner (born 1890) in 1914 at Königshuette. They had a son and a daughter.

Erfles studies in Munich were finished with his doctoral thesis (dated August, 1st, 1907) which is still available for review at the library of the University of Hannover, Germany. He worked with the optical shop of C.A. Steinheil & Sons until 1909, when he moved to Jena for the Carl Zeiss firm there. In that company he joined the telescope departement. He was promoted head of this deptartement in 1918 and his work improved the performance of the various optics then manufactured, mainly for military use. His published papers were on prisms and on algebraic formulae, but he also tried to broaden the knowledge of optics for all interested. His last work was mainly as a co-editor on the 3rd edition of the 'Grundzuege der Theorie der optischen Instrumente', (Basics of the Theory of optical Instruments) published in 1924. Today the name Erfle is well known to amateur astronomers for the wide field eyepiece he constructed.

Erfle died April 8, 1923 in Jena.

Erici, Johann [Stjernsträhl] (1607 - 1686)

Ertel, Traugott Leberecht (1778 - )

Esclangon, Ernest B. (1876 - 1954)

Eubaldus, Guido (16. Century)
G. Eubaldus was atromoner in the 16. century and published his ‘Planisphaeriorum universalium theoria’ in Cologne in 1581.

Euctemon (432 B.C.)

Eudoxus of Knidos (400 - 347 B.C)
Eudoxus was a pupil of Plato and Cicero called him ‘Price of Astronomy’. He described the constellations, measured the relative distances of stars using the moon diameter as a scale and made various other observations. Eudoxus made a kind of sundial and a celestial globe . The last years of his live he stayed on a hill to see the stars every evening.

Euklid (3. Century B.C.)
Euklid was a mathematician and wrote a work on spherical trigonometry in which he described the main circles in the sky.

Euler, Albert ()

Euler, Christoph (1743 - 1812)
C. Euler was born in Berlin on the 1. May 1743. He reported about the Venus transit across the sun on the 4. Juni 1769. Euler died in Russia in 1812.

Euler, Johann Albrecht (1734 - 1800)
J. A. Euler was born on the 27. November 1734 in Petersburg as the first son of Leonhard Euler. He was inspector at the observatory in Berlin from 1758 on and died on the 6. September 1800.

Euler, Leonhard (1707 - 1783)
L. Euler was born in Basel in 1707. He worked as a mathematician in Petersburg and influenced the astronomy with his work. He published several works, including one on the cause of the tides, the motion of planets and comets, and he influenced the developement of the achromatic telescope.
 
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