Oswald Thomas (born July 27, 1882 in Kronstadt ow Braşov in Transylvania">Braşov.html" ;"title="ow Braşov">ow Braşov in Transylvania, Romania]; died Feb. 13, 1963 in Vienna, Austria), was an astronomer and a protagonist of the popularization of astronomy in Germany and Austria.

Career

Thomas's father Karl, a girls' school director, imbued his son with the fascination of astronomical phenomenology from early on. In 1907 Oswald Thomas organized a formal registration system for

fireball Fireball may refer to: Science * Fireball (meteor), a brighter-than-usual meteor * Ball lightning, an atmospheric electrical phenomenon * ''Bassia scoparia'', a plant species Arts and entertainment Films * ''The Fireball'', a 1950 film starring ...

observations in his home town Kronstadt and named this institution ''Astronomisches Büro'' (Astronomical Bureau). Its tasks soon extended to a broader range of

adult education Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ralp ...

in astronomy. From 1910 to 1913 Thomas taught mathematics and physics at the German ''Gymnasium'' (high school) in Kronstadt. He relocated to Vienna, taking his Astronomical Bureau organization with him, and was a teacher at various private and public schools from 1913-1915 until he became head of the

Urania Urania ( ; grc, , Ouranía; modern Greek shortened name ''Ránia''; meaning "heavenly" or "of heaven") was, in Greek mythology, the muse of astronomy, and in later times, of Christian poetry. Urania is the goddess of astronomy and stars, he ...

observatory in Vienna (1915-1922, and again 1933–1934). When the first Zeiss projector

planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetarium ...

to be installed outside of Germany was established in Vienna in 1927, Thomas became its chief astronomer. His standard presentation ''Der Himmel über Wien'' (The Sky Above Vienna) achieved huge popularity. It was performed over a thousand times, and according to Thomas it provided the inspiration for the first Zeiss planetarium to be set up in the United States (in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

). In 1934 Thomas pointed out that the missing Messier object M48 actually was NGC 2548, an identification which became generally accepted only after T.F. Morris of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada independently repeated it in 1959. He introduced the

Summer Triangle The Summer Triangle is an astronomical asterism in the northern celestial hemisphere. The defining vertices of this imaginary triangle are at Altair, Deneb, and Vega, each of which is the brightest star of its constellation ( Aquila, Cygnus, ...

(which he named "Great Triangle") as an asterism into the literature, and created an atlas of celestial constellationsThomas O, Teschner R. Atlas der Sternbilder. Ed.: Selber Verlag 1945-1963 that is popular even today. Until his retirement Thomas gave over 7,000 public lectures, including 278 radio lectures. After World War II Thomas had incessantly pushed for a new Vienna public planetarium, and in 1962 - at the age of 80 years - he was able to participate in the laying of its foundation. He was succeeded in most of his activities by Hermann Mucke whose teacher and mentor he had been. Oswald Thomas was cremated at

Feuerhalle Simmering Feuerhalle Simmering is a crematorium with attached urn burial ground in the Simmering (Vienna), Simmering district of Vienna, Austria. It lies at the end of an alley, directly opposite Vienna Central Cemetery's main gate. Description Opened on ...

, where also his ashes are buried.

Honors

In 1941 the University of Vienna made Thomas an honorary professor for astronomy. In 1974 the place in the

Prater The Prater () is a large public park in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria. The Wurstelprater, an amusement park that is often simply called "Prater", lies in one corner of the Wiener Prater and includes the Wiener Riesenrad Ferris wheel. Name The n ...

where Vienna's current planetarium had been erected was named in his honor, and since 2004 the asteroid 29427 Oswaldthomas bears his name.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Oswald 20th-century Austrian astronomers 20th-century German astronomers Austrian educators 1882 births 1963 deaths Burials at Feuerhalle Simmering