Friedrich Karl Traugott Hayn (14 May 1863 – 9 September 1928) 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 ...

Biography

Hayn was born in Auerbach,

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

, in 1863, the son of a pastor. He attended high school in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

. From 1883 to 1888, he studied astronomy at Leipzig University and the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

. In 1888, he received his doctorate from Göttingen after determining the orbit of

Comet Swift-Tuttle A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...

, which had been discovered in 1862. In 1891, he became an assistant at Leipzig Observatory. In 1920, he turned down an offer from the

Koenigsberg Observatory Koenigsberg Observatory (german: Sternwarte Königsberg; Königsberger Universitätssternwarte; obs. code: 058) was an astronomical observatory and research facility which was attached to the Albertina University in Königsberg, what is now Kalin ...

, and became an associate professor at Leipzig. Throughout his career, he surveyed, among other things, the

Pleiades cluster The Pleiades (), also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45 and other names by different cultures, is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance of ...

and certain rotational elements of 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 ...

. In 1897, he published ''Astronomische Ortsbestimmungen im Deutschen Schutzgebiete der Südsee'', an account of his lunar studies. He also wrote an article in ''

Klein's encyclopedia Felix Klein's ''Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences'' is a German mathematical Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, an ...

'', and developed a type of electric clock.

Legacy

The lunar crater Hayn is named after him.

References

Footnotes

General References

* 1863 births 1928 deaths 19th-century German astronomers 20th-century German astronomers {{Germany-astronomer-stub