Alois Purgathofer (18 February 1925 – 13 March 1984), was an Austrian astronomer at 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 ...

from 1954 to 1984. He mainly worked on the

photometry Photometry can refer to: * Photometry (optics), the science of measurement of visible light in terms of its perceived brightness to human vision * Photometry (astronomy), the measurement of the flux or intensity of an astronomical object's electro ...

of galactic star clusters, but also on the asteroid 51 Nemausa. In 1969 the

Leopold Figl observatory Leopold may refer to: People * Leopold (given name) * Leopold (surname) Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Leopold (''The Simpsons''), Superintendent Chalmers' assistant on ''The Simpsons'' * Leopold Bloom, the protagonist o ...

was built on the Mitterschöpfl mountain under his technical and astronomical advice, containing a 1.5 m Ritchey–Chrétien telescope. His knowledge of astronomical instruments was legendary, especially of optical and electronic devices and of image converters. He died unexpectedly on 13 March 1984 during a business trip to the Calar Alto Observatory in

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city g ...

, Spain. In his honour Rudolf Pressberger named his self built observatory in Klosterneuburg-Kierling “ Purgathofer-Sternwarte”, and also the asteroid 5341 was named “Purgathofer”.

External links

Purgathofer Sternwarte
{{DEFAULTSORT:Purgathofer, Alois 20th-century Austrian astronomers 1925 births 1984 deaths