Related papers: Die Gerling Sternwarte (Gerling Astronomical Obser…
One of the mayor topics in astronomy at the beginning of the 19th century was the interpretation of the observations of the first asteroids. In 1810 Christian Ludwig Gerling at the age of twenty two came to G\"ottingen University to…
During the summer of 1837 Christian Ludwig Gerling, a former student of Carl Friedrich Gauss, organized the world wide first determination of a vertical deflection in longitude. From a mobile observatory at the Frauenberg close to Marburg…
At the end of the 17th century, the collection was established through the acquisition of Leiden instrumentmaker Musschenbroek's collection. Its aim was to demonstrate physical phenomena. Until the end of the 18th century, the collection…
During the summer of 1837 Christian Ludwig Gerling, a former student of Carl Friedrich Gau{\ss}'s, organized the world wide first determination of the deflection of the vertical in longitude. From a mobile observatory at the Frauenberg near…
Near the end of the 16th century Wilhelm IV, Landgraf von Hessen-Kassel, set up an observatory with the main goal to increase the accuracy of stellar positions primarily for use in astrology and for calendar purposes. A new star catalogue…
The solar observatory Einstein Tower (Einsteinturm) at the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam is both a landmark of modern architecture and an important place for solar physics. Originally built for high-resolution spectroscopy and measuring the…
Joseph-Nicolas Delisle was one of the most important scientists at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences during the first period when Euler was working there. Euler was helping him in his work on astronomy and in geography. In this…
While Kepler was still working in Graz during 1598, some letters to his mentor Michael Maestlin demonstrate his interest in astronomical clocks and machines. The first letter, dated January 6, 1598 contains a detailed description of a…
During the 17th century the idea of an orbiting and rotating Earth became increasingly popular, but opponents of this view continued to point out that the theory had observable consequences that had never, in fact, been observed. Why, for…
A Danish computer, GIER, from 1961 played a vital role in the development of a new method for astrometric measurement. This method, photon counting astrometry, ultimately led to two satellites with a significant role in the modern…
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary since the beginning of the search for gravitational waves at the Max Planck Society, and in coincidence with the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Albert Einstein Institute, we explore the…
Asteroids are remnants of the material from which the Solar System formed. Fragments of asteroids, in the form of meteorites, include samples of the first solid matter to form in our Solar System 4.5 mia years ago. Spectroscopic studies of…
The measurement of the deflection of starlight during a total solar eclipse on May 29, 1919 was the first verification of general relativity by an external team of scientists, brought Einstein and his theory to the attention of the general…
In 1847 Christian Ludwig Gerling, Marburg (Germany), suggested the solar parallax to be determined by measuring the position of Venus close to its inferior conjunction, especially at the stationary points, from observatories on nearly the…
We consider strong gravitational lensing by nearby stars. Using our wave-optical treatment of lensing phenomena, we study Einstein rings that may form around nearby stellar lenses. It is remarkable that these rings are bright and large…
Astronomers are the surveyors of the sky. They have always dedicated much time and resources to determining the scale of distances in the universe. Today, the Hubble constant; yesterday, the solar parallar. The following account, attributed…
Gerbert of Aurillac wrote to Constantine of Fleury in 978 a letter to describe in detail the procedure to point the star nearest to the North celestial pole. This was made to align a sphere equipped with tubes to observe the celestial pole,…
The existence of neutron stars was not confirmed until the discovery of pulsars at radio wavelengths in late 1960s. Since then, these highly compact and magnetized objects have been observed across the electromagnetic spectrum, and widely…
In 1953 I heard of an experiment in 1925 by Bengt Str\"omgren where he observed transit times with the meridian circle at the Copenhagen University Observatory measuring the current in a photocell behind slits when a star was crossing. In…
We present the archive of the wide-field plate observations obtained at the University Observatory Jena, which is stored at the Astrophysical Institute of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. The archive contains plates taken in the…