Ernst Zinner (2 February 1886 in Goldberg,

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

– 30 August 1970) 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, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

and noted historian of astronomy. After studies in Munich and Jena he obtained his PhD in 1907 at the University of Jena, followed by stays at the University of Lund, the University of Paris, and the Königstuhl Observatory in Heidelberg. From 1 February 1910, Zinner worked as an assistant at Remeis Observatory, Bamberg. Here, on 23 October 1913 he rediscovered the Comet Giacobini-Zinner, which had been previously discovered by

Michel Giacobini Michel Giacobini (1873–1938) was a French astronomer. He discovered a number of comets, including 21P/Giacobini-Zinner (parent body of the Giacobinids meteor shower), 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak, and 205P/Giacobini. The latter he had disc ...

in 1900. His main work during this time was on variable stars. After working as a meteorologist during World War I, Zinner returned to Bamberg, but then moved to

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

to work in geodesy. In 1924 Zinner received the professor's title from the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

. He was appointed director of Remeis-Observatory in Bamberg, Germany, in 1926 and retired in 1956. During this time his main astronomical work centered on stellar astronomy. His main speciality and interest, however, was Renaissance Astronomy and the history of astronomical instruments, an area in which he started working in 1925. In 1943, during the World War II, Zinner published the book Entstehung und Ausbreitung der coppernicanischen Lehre on the genesis and diffusion of the Copernican theory. His obituaries quote a total of 9000 printed pages on this subject, with the most significant ones focusing on biographies and cataloguing early astronomical works and instruments. He systematically exaggerated German contributions to the history of science (Westman, Robert S. 1997. “Zinner, Copernicus, and the Nazis”. Journal for the History of Astronomy 28:259–270.).

Works

* Zinner, Ernst : "Leben und Wirken des Joh. Müller von Königsberg, genannt Regiomontanus"; Translated into English by Ezra A. Brown as "Regiomontanus: His Life and Work"

Honors

* The crater

Zinner Zinner is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Emil Zinner (1909–1942), Jewish-Czech chess master * Ernst Zinner (1886–1970), German astronomer * Ernst K. Zinner (1937–2015), Austrian astrophysicist * Hedda Zinner (1905–19 ...

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 ...

is named after him. * Honorary doctorate of the University of Frankfurt * Honorary citizen of Königsberg in Franken * Leibniz Medal of the Prussian Academy of Sciences

Sources

Ernst Zinner (1886-1970), Astronomische Nachrichten 293, 79

Ernst Zinner (1886-1970), Journal for the History of Astronomy 2, 132
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zinner, Ernst 1886 births 1970 deaths People from Złotoryja 20th-century German astronomers Historians of astronomy University of Jena alumni Academic staff of the University of Paris Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany