Karl Ludwig Edler von Littrow (18 July 1811 – 16 November 1877) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

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 ...

. Born in

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, he was the son of astronomer

Joseph Johann Littrow Joseph Johann von Littrow (13 March 1781, Horšovský Týn (german: Bischofteinitz) – 30 November 1840, Vienna) was an Austrian astronomer. In 1837, he was ennobled with the title Joseph Johann Edler von Littrow. He was the father of Karl L. Lit ...

. He studied mathematics and astronomy at the universities of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, receiving his doctorate at the

University of Krakow The Jagiellonian University ( Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

in 1832. In 1842 he succeeded his father as director of the

Vienna Observatory The Vienna Observatory (german: Universitätssternwarte Wien) is an astronomical observatory in Vienna, Austria. It is part of the University of Vienna. The first observatory was built in 1753–1754 on the roof of one of the university buildings ...

. Under his leadership, construction of a new observatory began in

Währing Währing () is the 18th district of Vienna and lies in northwestern Vienna on the edge of the Vienna Woods. It was formed in 1892 from the unification of the older suburbs of Währing, Weinhaus, Gersthof, Pötzleinsdorf, Neustift am Walde and Sa ...

in 1872; he died, however, prior to its completion. He was the husband of

Auguste von Littrow Auguste von Littrow, ''née'' Bischoff von Altenstern (13 February 1819 in Prague – 23 March 1890 in Vienna) was a German-Austrian author and women's movement leader. She was the daughter of the physician Professor Ignaz von Bischoff-Altens ...

. He died in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, Italy. He is the great-great-grandfather of Roman Catholic Cardinal

Christoph Schönborn Christoph Maria Michael Hugo Damian Peter Adalbert Graf von Schönborn, O.P. (; born 22 January 1945) is a Bohemian-born Austrian Dominican friar and theologian, who is a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He serves as the Archbishop of Vienna and ...

Publications

*''Beitrag zu einer Monographie des Halleyschen Cometen'', (1834) – Monograph on

Halley's comet Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–79 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the o ...

. *''Verzeichnis geographischer Ortsbestimmungen'', (1844) – Directory of geographical localizations. *''Die Wunder des Himmels : gemeinverständliche Darstellung des astronomischen Weltbildes'', (1854) – The wonders of the heavens; a common understanding of the astronomical world image. *''Physische Zusammenkünfte der Planeten'', (1859). He made contributions to a new edition of

Johann Samuel Traugott Gehler Johann Samuel Traugott Gehler (1 November 1751, in Görlitz – 16 October 1795, in Leipzig) was a German lawyer and physicist. He studied mathematics, natural sciences and law at the University of Leipzig, obtaining his habilitation for mathem ...

's ''Physikalisches wörterbunch''.Johann Samuel Traugott Gehler's Physikalisches wörterbunch
OCLC WorldCat

References

1811 births 1877 deaths 19th-century Austrian astronomers Edlers of Austria University of Vienna alumni {{Europe-astronomer-stub