Albert Marth (5 May 1828 – 6 August 1897) was a German

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

who worked in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Life

After studying theology at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

, his interest in astronomy and mathematics led him to study astronomy under C. A. F. Peters at the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg (german: Albertus-Universität Königsberg) was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke Albert of Prussi ...

. Marth went to England in 1853 to work for George Bishop, a rich wine merchant and patron of

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

, who financed a London observatory (in operation from 1836 to 1861). At that time, paid jobs in astronomy were quite rare. He worked as

William Lassell William Lassell (18 June 1799 – 5 October 1880) was an English merchant and astronomer.Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

, discovering 600

nebula A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regio ...

e. He also discovered one of the earlier

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

s found,

29 Amphitrite Amphitrite (minor planet designation: 29 Amphitrite) is one of the largest S-type asteroids, approximately in diameter, and probably fifth largest after Eunomia, Juno, Iris and Herculina. Discovery Amphitrite was discovered by Albert Marth o ...

, and the galaxies

NGC 3 NGC 3 is a lenticular galaxy in the Pisces (constellation), Pisces constellation. It was discovered on November 29, 1864 by Albert Marth. References External links

* * Galaxies discovered in 1864 Lenticular galaxies Pisces (conste ...

, NGC 4 and

NGC 15 NGC 15 is a spiral galaxy located in the Pegasus (constellation), Pegasus constellation. It was discovered by Albert Marth on October 30, 1864. References External links

* * Galaxies discovered in 1864 Spiral galaxies Pegasus (cons ...

. He also did work in

double stars In observational astronomy, a double star or visual double is a pair of stars that appear close to each other as viewed from Earth, especially with the aid of optical telescopes. This occurs because the pair either forms a binary star (i.e. a bi ...

, discovering

NGC 30 NGC commonly refers to: * New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, a catalogue of deep sky objects in astronomy NGC may also refer to: Companies * NGC Corporation, name of US electric company Dynegy, Inc. from 1995 to 1998 * Na ...

in 1864. From 1883 to 1897 he worked at the

Markree Observatory Markree Observatory was an astronomical observatory in County Sligo, Ireland. The asteroid 9 Metis was discovered from this observatory in 1848 by Cooper's assistant Andrew Graham using a comet seeker telescope. (Signed 29 April 1848; the discove ...

in Ireland where he was the second director appointed in its second period of operation. He made extensive

ephemerides In astronomy and celestial navigation, an ephemeris (pl. ephemerides; ) is a book with tables that gives the trajectory of naturally occurring astronomical objects as well as artificial satellites in the sky, i.e., the position (and possibly vel ...

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

bodies. He even performed calculations of transits of various planets from other planets, predicting transits of Earth from Mars and many others. Craters on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

and

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

are named for him. The crater

Marth Marth may refer to: * Marth, Thuringia, Germany People with the surname * Albert Marth (1828–1897), German astronomer * Christophe Marth (born 1980), French rugby player * Frank Marth (born 1922), American actor * Tommy Marth Thomas Christian ...

on the Moon is about 3 km in diameter.

References

External links

A. Marth
@

Astrophysics Data System The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is an online database of over 16 million astronomy and physics papers from both peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed sources. Abstracts are available free online for almost all articles, and full scanned a ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marth, Albert 1828 births 1897 deaths 19th-century German astronomers Irish astronomers Discoverers of asteroids Recipients of the Lalande Prize