Kasimir Romuald Graff (7 February 1878 – 15 February 1950) was a Polish-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 ...

. He worked as an assistant at the

Hamburg Observatory Hamburg Observatory (german: Hamburger Sternwarte) is an astronomical observatory located in the Bergedorf borough of the city of Hamburg in northern Germany. It is owned and operated by the University of Hamburg, Germany since 1968, although it ...

and became a professor at

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

in 1916. In 1928 he became 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 ...

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 ...

. When the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

government took over in Austria in 1938, he was forced to retire. It is likely that his family background and his rejection of the Nazi-supported philosophy of "

Welteislehre Welteislehre (WEL; "World Ice Theory" or "World Ice Doctrine"), also known as Glazial-Kosmogonie (''Glacial Cosmogony''), is a discredited cosmological concept proposed by Hanns Hörbiger, an Austrian engineer and inventor. According to his ideas, ...

" was the reason, although he officially was removed because of unproven charges of

embezzlement Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...

. He was reinstated in 1945, and he retired in 1949. Using a 60 cm telescope, he was very adept in creating planetary maps from visual observations. He also worked on measuring radiation emitted from stars, and invented and built new instrumentation for this purpose. This included new types of

calorimeter A calorimeter is an object used for calorimetry, or the process of measuring the heat of chemical reactions or physical changes as well as heat capacity. Differential scanning calorimeters, isothermal micro calorimeters, titration calorimete ...

and

photometer A photometer is an instrument that measures the strength of electromagnetic radiation in the range from ultraviolet to infrared and including the visible spectrum. Most photometers convert light into an electric current using a photoresistor, ph ...

detectors.

Honors

* The lunar crater ''

Graff Graff may refer to: * Graff (lunar crater) * Graff (Martian crater) * Graff (jewellers), jewelry boutique specializing in rare diamonds ** 2009 Graff Diamonds robbery, which took place at the above store * Graff, Minnesota an unincorporated co ...

'', as well as Martian crater ''

'' are named after him.

References

1878 births 1950 deaths 20th-century German astronomers Member of the Tomasz Zan Society {{Germany-astronomer-stub