Fedor Ivanovich Shubert

Born Oct. 19 (30), 1758, in Helmstadt, Germany; died Oct. 10 (22), 1825, in St. Petersburg. Russian astronomer and geodesist. Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences from 1789.

Shubert was named head of the observatory of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1804. He published a university-level textbook on theoretical astronomy in 1798 and conducted magnetic observations along the route extending from St. Petersburg through Kazan and Tobol’sk to Irkutsk in 1805. Shubert helped found the naval astronomical observatories at Kronstadt and Nikolaev.

Shubert was the author of A Guide to Astronomical Observations Used in Determining Latitude and Longitude (1803). In 1813 he began publishing annually Morskoi mesiatseslov (Maritime Calendar), which was used by the navy. Shubert was also the author of Popular Astronomy (parts 1–3,1804–10), which explained the universe in accessible language.