Paul Friedrich Ferdinand Kempf (3 June 1856 – 16 February 1920) was a German astronomer.
In 1878 was awarded a doctorate in astronomy from the Humboldt University of Berlin with a thesis titled Untersuchungen über die Ptolemäische Theorie der Mondbewegung (Investigations into the Ptolemaic theory of lunar movement).[1] On 1 July the same year he became an assistant at the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam.[2]
Early in his career as an astronomer he aided German solar astronomer Gustav Spörer in his work to observe sun spot activity.[3] Kempf joined an 1882 German expedition to Chile to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun.[4] He was then part of solar eclipse missions to Russia in 1887 and 1914.[3] In 1886, he was promoted to full astronomer and began a collaboration with his friend, German astronomer Gustav Müller to perform a massive survey of northern stars with magnitudes brighter than 7.5 found in the Bonner Durchmusterung. This work was published between 1894 and 1906, with the completed so-called Potsdamer Photometrische Durchmusterung appearing in 1907.[5][6] (Full name: "Photometrische Durchmusterung des Nördlichen Himmels, anthaltend alle sterne der B.D. bis zur Grösze 7.5"[7]
In 1894 he was named as the principal observer at Potsdam.[8] Kempf became secretary to the Astronomische Gesellschaft in 1914, then added the job of treasurer, holding both posts until his death.[3] He was survived by his wife, Helene Marie Emilie Kempf, who became one of the first two female members of the Astronomische Gesellschaft in 1921.[9]
References edit
- ^ Paul Friedrich Ferdinand Kempf at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ^ "Reports of Observatories", Progress of astronomy, vol. 2, 1879, p. 464
- ^ a b c "Notes", The Observatory, 43: 199–208, May 1920, Bibcode:1920Obs....43..199. See p. 203.
- ^ Duerbeck, H. W. (March 2003), "National and international astronomical activities in Chile 1849--2002", in Sterken, C. (ed.), Interplay of Periodic, Cyclic and Stochastic Variability in Selected Areas of the H-R Diagram, ASP Conference Series, vol. 292, San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2003, p. 3, Bibcode:2003ASPC..292....3D
- ^ Hearnshaw, J. B. (1996), The measurement of starlight: two centuries of astronomical photometry, Cambridge University Press, p. 56, ISBN 0-521-40393-6
- ^ "Obituary Notices: Associates:- Müller, C. H. Gustav", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 88: 259, February 1928, Bibcode:1928MNRAS..88..259., doi:10.1093/mnras/88.4.259
- ^ "Photometrische Durchmusterung des Nördlichen Himmels, anthaltend alle sterne der B.D. bis zur Grösze 7.5", Publikationen des Astrophysikalischen Observatoriums zu Potsdam, 17 (52), 1907, Bibcode:1894POPot...9....1M
- ^ Porträtgallerie der Astronomischen Gesellschaft: Porträts nebst genealogischen Notizen (in German), Hasse W. Tullberg, 1904, p. 31
- ^ Kolloquium zur Astronomiegeschichte (PDF), Argelander-Institut für Astronomie, Universität Bonn, September 21, 2009, retrieved 2012-01-18
Further reading edit
- Müller, G. (March 1920), "Anzeige des Todes von Paul Kempf (Announcement of the death by Paul Kempf)", Astronomische Nachrichten (in German), 210: 391, Bibcode:1920AN....210..391M, doi:10.1002/asna.19202102308