Rudolf König (18 August 1865 – 30 January 1927) 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 ...

n merchant, amateur

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 ...

and selenographer.

Biography

König was born in

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 received his technical education in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

. He was the son of Georg König, a fur businessman. While he worked for his father's fur business, he attended lectures at the University of Vienna and acquired astronomical knowledge. König and his wife Josefine Antonie König had two children.

Private observatory

As he had an interest in astronomy, in 1906 he built a private observatory in Vienna, on the top of his house, 12 Kuppelwiesergasse. The instrument was designed for astrophotography and consisted of Carl Zeiss’ 18 and 21 cm caliber birefringence telescopes on a huge equatorial shelf. On his observatory, he observed the crater König named after him and completed his study for his deceased friend, the draftsman, and selenographer, Johann Kreiger. In 1929, after König's death, his widow sold the telescope to the “Bohemian Astronomical Society” to build a public observatory in Prague. The observatory is now operated by the Stefanik Observatory in Prague. 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 ...

houses his specialist library, as well as other astronomical instruments.

Study for Kreiger’s publication

König was a friend of

Johann Krieger Johann Krieger (28 December 1651 – 18 July 1735) was a German composer and organist, younger brother of Johann Philipp Krieger. Born in Nuremberg, he worked at Bayreuth, Zeitz, and Greiz before settling in Zittau. He was one of the most importan ...

as well as the co-editor of Kreiger's ''Mond Atlas''. After Krieger's death, he left mass unorganized descriptions and sketches of the Moon observation. König then spent two years’ observation on his observatory, and within five years arranged two Krieger's volumes including his reproduction drawing and sketches, and requisite letterpress.“Popular Astronomy.”
Edited by Herbert C.1912Print p10. In 1912. König published a volume of

’s illustrations of the Moon.

References

*Štefánikova hvězdárna - Hvězdárna a planetárium hl. m. Prahy, Stefanik Observatory, Prague �
Website in English
1865 births 1927 deaths Scientists from Vienna 19th-century Austrian astronomers Austrian merchants 20th-century Austrian astronomers Astronomers from Austria-Hungary Expatriates in the German Empire Expatriates from Austria-Hungary {{Europe-astronomer-stub