Wilhelm Beer: Difference between revisions

{{UnreferencedMore citations needed|date=JuneSeptember 20082014}}

|image = Wilhelm Beer.jpg

|image_size = 150px

|birth_place = [[Berlin]], [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]]

|death_place = Berlin, Prussia

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'''Wilhelm Wolff Beer''' (4 January 1797 &nbsp;&ndash; 27 March 1850) was a [[banker]] and [[astronomer]] from [[Berlin]], [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], and the half-brother of [[Giacomo Meyerbeer]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers |last=Hockey |first=Thomas |year=2009 |publisher=[[Springer Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-387-31022-0 |accessdate=August 22, 2012 |url=http://www.springerreference.com/docs/html/chapterdbid/59733.html}}</ref>

Beer's fame derives from his hobby, [[astronomy]]. He built a private [[observatory]] with a 9.5&nbsp;cm [[refractor]] in [[Tiergarten (Berlin)|Tiergarten]], Berlin. Together with [[Johann Heinrich Mädler]] he produced the first exact map of the [[Moon]] (entitled ''[[Mappa Selenographica]]'') in 1834-18361834–1836, and in 1837 published a description of the Moon (''Der Mond nach seinen kosmischen und individuellen Verhältnissen''). Both remained the best descriptions of the Moon for many decades.

Beer was multi-talented. In addition to his hobby of astronomy, he helped with the establishment of a [[railway]] system in [[Prussia]], and promoted the [[Jew]]ish community in Berlin. In his last decade of life, he worked as a writer and [[politician]]. In 1849 he was elected as an MP for the first chamber of the Prussian parliament.

The crater [[Beer (crater on Mars)|Beer]]<ref name=deVaucouleurs1975>{{cite journal | title=The new Martian nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union | display-authors=1 | last1=de Vaucouleurs | first1=G. | last2=Blunck | first2=J. | last3=Davies | first3=M. | last4=Dollfus | first4=A. | last5=Koval | first5=I. K. | last6=Kuiper | first6=G. P. | last7=Masursky | first7=H. | last8=Miyamoto | first8=S. | last9=Moroz | first9=V. I. | last10=Sagan | first10=Carl | last11=Smith | first11=Bradford | journal=Icarus | volume=26 | issue=1 | date=September 1975 | pages=85−98 | doi=10.1016/0019-1035(75)90146-3 | bibcode=1975Icar...26...85D }}</ref> on Mars is named in Wilhelm Beer's honor and lies near [[Mädler (crater on Mars)|Mädler]]. There is also a crater called [[Beer (lunar crater)|Beer]] on the [[Moon]] and an [[asteroid]] [[1896 Beer]].

{{CommonscatCommons category|Wilhelm Beer}}

* https://web.archive.org/web/20040208043324/http://humbabe.arc.nasa.gov/mgcm/fun/mars_chro.html

* http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/onlinebks/mars/chap04.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701062415/http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/onlinebks/mars/chap04.htm |date=2017-07-01 }}

* https://web.archive.org/web/20070822203214/http://www.exploringmars.com/history/1800.html

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[[Category:19th-century German Jews]]

[[Category:19th-century German astronomers]]