Heino Eelsalu (8 May 1930 – 26 July 1998) was an

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

n astronomer and science historian. Eelsalu was born in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

in 1930. In 1954 he graduated from

Tartu State University The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

in mathematics. After graduating he worked at the

Tartu Observatory The Tartu Observatory ( et, Tartu Observatoorium) is the largest astronomical observatory in Estonia. On 1 January 2018, Tartu Observatory was joined again to the University of Tartu, and the observatory is now an institute of the university. I ...

. His main fields of research were the structure of

Galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

, and stellar photometry. He was a member of many international and local organisations, eg

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...

and

Estonian Naturalists' Society Estonian Naturalists' Society ( et, Eesti Looduseuurijate Selts, ELUS) is the oldest Estonia-based society of naturalists. It was founded in 1853, and since establishing has been the major scientific organisation focusing on natural history of E ...

Works

* Astronoomia areng Eesti kultuuriloolise probleemina. // Teaduse ajaloo lehekülgi Eestist II (1976). * Theoretical foundations of stellar statistics. Tallinn 1982. * Johann Heinrich Mädler (1794–1874): Eine dokumentarische Biographie (with

Dieter B. Herrmann Dieter Bernhard Herrmann (3 January 1939 – 25 November 2021) was a German historian of astronomy and author of numerous popular science books on astronomy. He was director of the Zeiss Major Planetarium in Berlin from 1987 to 2004. In his sc ...

). Berlin 1985. * Ajastult ajastule. Tallinn 1985. * Theory of basic galactic statistical research systems. Tallinn 1990. * Rara astronomica in Estonia I-X (one of the authors). Tallinn 1977-1990. * Astronoomialeksikon. Tallinn 1996.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eelsalu, Heino 1930 births 1998 deaths Estonian astronomers 20th-century Estonian historians University of Tartu alumni Scientists from Tallinn