Hans Carl Frederik Christian Schjellerup (8 February 1827 – 13 November 1887) was a Danish

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 ...

. He was born at

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 20 ...

, the son of a jeweller. Initially he was apprenticed as a watch maker, but in 1848 he passed the entrance exam for the Polytechnic School of Copenhagen. He graduated by passing an examination in applied mathematics and mechanics. In 1851 he became an observer at the University Observatory in Copenhagen. He soon became an instructor at the Polytechnic School, then in 1854 a Professor of Mathematics at the Denmark Naval Academy. In 1866, after the new observatory had been completed, Schjellerup assembled a catalog of

red star A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. I ...

s. He also began a study of Arabic, Chinese and other oriental languages, and used his knowledge to study old astronomic records, including those of Abd-al-Rahman al-Sûfi (whose ''

Book of Fixed Stars The ''Book of Fixed Stars'' ( ar, كتاب صور الكواكب ', literally ''The Book of the Shapes of Stars'') is an astronomical text written by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi) around 964. Following the translation movement in the 9th centu ...

'' he translated into French in 1874) and Chinese records of eclipses. In 1869, he drafted a proposal for a Chinese telegraph dictionary, with each of 5,454 characters being assigned a number. He became an associate of the British

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NG ...

in 1879. At the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

he became director of the observatory, serving in that capacity up until his death, following a lengthy illness. The crater Schjellerup on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

is named after him.

References

* * 1827 births 1887 deaths People from Odense 19th-century Danish astronomers {{europe-astronomer-stub