Karl Ludwig Harding (29 September 1765 – 31 August 1834) 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 ...

, who discovered 3 Juno, the third asteroid of the

main-belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...

in 1804. The lunar crater '' Harding'' and the asteroid 2003 Harding are named in his honor. Harding was born in

Lauenburg Lauenburg (), or Lauenburg an der Elbe ( en, Lauenberg on the Elbe), is a town in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the northern bank of the river Elbe, east of Hamburg. It is the southernmost town of Schleswig-Holstein ...

. From 1786–89, he was educated at 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 ...

, where he studied theology, mathematics, and physics. In 1796

Johann Hieronymus Schröter Johann Hieronymus Schröter (30 August 1745, Erfurt – 29 August 1816, Lilienthal) was a German astronomer. Life Schröter was born in Erfurt, and studied law at Göttingen University from 1762 until 1767, after which he started a ten-y ...

hired Harding as a tutor for his son. Schröter was an enthusiastic astronomer, and Harding was soon appointed observer and inspector in his observatory. In 1800, he was among the 24 astronomers invited to participate in the

celestial police The celestial police (german: Himmelspolizey), officially the United Astronomical Society (german: Vereinigte Astronomische Gesellschaft, VAG), were an informal group of astronomers working in the early 19th century with the express purpose of f ...

, a group dedicated to finding additional planets in the solar system. As part of the group, in 1804, Harding discovered Juno at Schröter's observatory. In the same year he was appointed professor of astronomy in Göttingen and left Lilienthal, where his successor became

Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (; 22 July 1784 – 17 March 1846) was a German astronomer, mathematician, physicist, and geodesist. He was the first astronomer who determined reliable values for the distance from the sun to another star by the method ...

. In addition to Juno, he discovered three

comet 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 ...

s and the variable stars R Virginis, R Aquarii, R Serpentis and S Serpentis. He also published: *''Atlas novus coelestis'' (1808–1823; re-edited by Jahn, 1856) which catalogued 120,000 stars *''Kleine astronomische Ephemeriden'' (edited with Wiessen, 1830–35) *the fifteenth in the series of Sternkarten of the Berlin Academy's publications (1830)

References

* * * N. N.
''Biographical notice of Professor Harding.''
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 3 (1835), S. 86 (Nachruf, englisch)

External links

Publications by K. L. Harding
in

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 ...

1765 births 1834 deaths People from Lauenburg (Elbe) 19th-century German astronomers Discoverers of asteroids Discoverers of comets Fellows of the Royal Society University of Göttingen alumni University of Göttingen faculty Recipients of the Lalande Prize 18th-century German astronomers {{Germany-astronomer-stub