Observations and inference: Johann Hieronymous Schroeter, 1745-1816
Abstract
Johann Hieronymous Schroeter was a pathfinder; a tireless, enthusiastic explorer of the moon and planets whose achievements inspired successive generations of observers, and induced Agnes Clerke in 1885 to call him 'the Herschel of Germany'. Since then however, his reputation has undergone eclipse. If mentioned at all, he is usually referred to in lowercase as someone who compromised his place in the observational history of solar system studies by subordinating observation to theory. He is in fact, a clear case of 'the evils that men do live after them; the good is oft interred with their bones'. Joseph Ashbrook summed him up as 'The Percival Lowell of his age', a not altogether inapt comparison. As August 1995 is the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Schroeter's birth it is not unreasonable to ask, what is the reality of the man who laid the foundations of planetology and modern selenography?
- Publication:
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Journal of the British Astronomical Association
- Pub Date:
- August 1995
- Bibcode:
- 1995JBAA..105..171S
- Keywords:
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- HISTORICAL;
- BIOGRAPHY: SCHROETER;
- J.H.