Hugo Von Seeliger


Seeliger, Hugo Von

 

Born Sept. 23, 1849, in Biała, now Bielsko-Biała, Poland; died Dec. 2, 1924, in Munich. German astronomer; specialist in stellar astronomy, astrophysics, and celestial mechanics.

From 1882 to 1924, Seeliger was director of the Munich Observatory and from 1896 to 1921, chairman of the German Astronomical Society. Using the stellar catalog Atlas des nördlichen gestirnten Himmels für den Anfang des Jahres 1855, he conducted a statistical investigation of the distribution of stars in space. He formulated the gravitational paradox (Seeliger’s paradox). Seeliger developed the theory of novas and investigated binary and multiple stars and the structure of the rings of Saturn.

REFERENCE

Kienle, H. “Hugo von Seeliger” (obituary). Vierteljahrschrift der Astronomischen Gesellschaft, 1925, vol. 60, fasc. 1.