Gottfried Adolf Kinau (4 January 1814 – 9 January 1888) was a German
Protestant minister and
astronomer.
Born in
Aschersleben into a family of ministers and teachers, Kinau studied theology in
Halle Halle may refer to:
Places Germany
* Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt
** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt
** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany
** Hall ...
and
Magdeburg from 1833 to 1840. Until 1851, he had several appointments as teacher. Until 1861, he was minister in
Rohr in
Thuringia. Until his death he was minister at the Kreuzkirche in
Suhl, Thuringia. He had several offices in charity and school system.
Kinau was known as a
selenographer
Selenography is the study of the surface and physical features of the Moon (also known as geography of the Moon, or selenodesy). Like geography and areography, selenography is a subdiscipline within the field of planetary science. Historica ...
, who had specialised in
lunar rills. In 1847 he discovered six lunar rilles and continued to make lunar drawings all his life. The
lunar crater Kinau is named after him.
References
* Kinau in "Wöchentliche Unterhaltungen für Dilettanten und Freunde der Astronomie, Geographie und Witterungskunde, herausgegeben von G.A. Jahn", 2ter Jahr., nr. 25 (1848), pp. 201-204
* J.C. Houzeau, A. Lancaster: "Bibliographie générale de l'astronomie jusqu'en 1880", Tome II, column 1247
* Olaf Kretzer: "Gottfried Adolf Kinau: Ein Pfarrer aus Suhl, verewigt auf dem Mond?" Sterne und Weltraum (Oktober/2005) S. 84 ff
* Gottfried Adolf Kinau, ''Zur Mondtopographie. In: Sirius. Zeitschrift für populäre Astronomie'', Band 10, Neue Serie, 1882, p. 19
* Gottfried Adolf Kinau, ''Zeichnung der Mondkrater Manzinus and Mutus'', Sirius Band 10, report #9, 1882, p. 217
* Olaf Kretzer, ''Gottfried Adolf Kinau: Ein Pfarrer aus Suhl, verewigt auf dem Mond?,'' Sterne und Weltraum, octobre 2005, p. 84
Robert A. Garfinkel, Bernd Pfeiffer, ''Discovery of the real person behind the name of the lunar crater Kinau'' Journal of the British Astronomical Association 117, 2007.
1814 births
1888 deaths
19th-century German astronomers
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni
People from Aschersleben
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