The Astronomische Gesellschaft is an astronomical society established in 1863 in Heidelberg, the second oldest astronomical society after the Royal Astronomical Society. [1]
In 1882, the Astronomische Gesellschaft founded the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams at Kiel, where it remained until during World War I when it was moved to the Østervold Observatory at Copenhagen, Denmark, to be operated there by the Copenhagen University Observatory. [2]
Around the turn of the 20th century the A.G. initiated the most important star catalog of this time, the Astronomische Gesellschaft Katalog (AGK).
The assembly in Danzig (now Gdańsk) in August 1939 was the last until a meeting at Göttingen in 1947, when it was re-commenced as Astronomische Gesellschaft in der Britischen Zone. The post-war editorial board consisted of Chairman Albrecht Unsöld (Kiel), Otto Heckmann, J. Larink, B. Straßl, Paul ten Bruggencate, and also Max Beyer representing the amateurs of the society. [1]
With dates of appointment: [5]
The astronomical society awards the following awards and prizes:
The Hanno and Ruth Roelin Prize is also awarded at the society's annual meeting, but it is administered by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.
The Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal is awarded every year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding lifetime contributions to astronomy. It is named after Catherine Wolfe Bruce, an American patroness of astronomy, and was first awarded in 1898.
The Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) is a research institute located in Garching, just north of Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It is one of many scientific research institutes belonging to the Max Planck Society.
Albrecht Otto Johannes Unsöld was a German astrophysicist known for his contributions to spectroscopic analysis of stellar atmospheres.
Erika Helga Ruth Böhm-Vitense was a German-born American astrophysicist known for her work on Cepheid variables and convection in stellar atmospheres.
Hugo von Seeliger, also known as Hugo Hans Ritter von Seeliger, was a German astronomer, often considered the most important astronomer of his day.
Astronomische Nachrichten, one of the first international journals in the field of astronomy, was established in 1821 by the German astronomer Heinrich Christian Schumacher. It claims to be the oldest astronomical journal in the world that is still being published. The publication today specializes in articles on solar physics, extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, geophysics, and instrumentation for these fields. All articles are subject to peer review.
Karl Nikolaus Adalbert Krueger was a German astronomer. Born in Marienburg, Prussia, he was editor of Astronomische Nachrichten from 1881 until his death.
Reinhard Genzel is a German astrophysicist, co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, a professor at LMU and an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy", which he shared with Andrea Ghez and Roger Penrose. In a 2021 interview given to Federal University of Pará in Brazil, Genzel recalls his journey as a physicist; the influence of his father, Ludwig Genzel; his experiences working with Charles H. Townes; and more.
The Mannheim Observatory was a tower observatory built between 1772 and 1774 in Mannheim, Germany, which remained in operation until 1880. The observatory was transferred to Karlsruhe and finally in 1898, was established on the Königstuhl near Heidelberg where today's successor institution the State Observatory Heidelberg-Königstuhl is located.
The Karl Schwarzschild Medal, named after the astrophysicist Karl Schwarzschild, is an award presented by the Astronomische Gesellschaft to eminent astronomers and astrophysicists.
Eva K. Grebel is a German astronomer. Since 2007 she has been co-director of the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Eva Grebel is an expert in the study of stellar populations and galaxy formation.
Harald Lesch is a German physicist, astronomer, natural philosopher, author, television presenter, professor of physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and professor of natural philosophy at the Munich University of Philosophy.
The Kuffner observatory is one of two telescope-equipped public astronomical observatories situated in Austria's capital, Vienna. It is situated in the West of the city's Ottakring district, on the slope of the Gallitzinberg at 302 m altitude. Originally a private research institution, it was converted into an educational astronomy facility after World War II as buildings and city lights had encroached to a degree that severely hampered scientific nightsky observations. Today the main tasks of the observatory consist in public education on astronomy, operating and preserving the historical equipment, and minor projects in scientific astronomy.
The Ludwig Biermann Award is an annual prize awarded by the German Astronomische Gesellschaft to an outstanding young astronomer. The prize is named in honour of the German astronomer Ludwig Biermann and was first awarded in 1989, three years after his death. Nominees for the award must be under the age of 35. The monetary value of the award is 2500 €, and it is intended to enable the awardee to make one or more research visits to an institute of their choice. Usually, only a single prize is awarded per year, but in a few cases, two prizes have been awarded.
Göttingen Observatory is a German astronomical observatory located in Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany.
Walter Ernst Fricke was a distinguished German professor of theoretical astronomy at the University of Heidelberg. He was a mathematician and cryptanalyst during World War II at the Wehrmacht signals intelligence agency, Inspectorate 7/VI from 1941 to 1942 (which would later become the General der Nachrichtenaufklärung. In 1942 he was transferred to the OKW/Chi Section IIb. His specialty was the production of codes and ciphers, and the security studies of Army systems. After the war he was director of the Astronomical Calculation Institute in Heidelberg, Germany.
Adolph Christian Wilhelm Schur, RAS Associate was a German astronomer and professor of astronomy at the University of Göttingen. He held important positions at multiple observatories throughout his career, namely deputy director of the Strasbourg Observatory and director of the Göttingen Observatory. His main work was in astrometry, although he focused on publishing astronomical catalogues in his later life.
Joachim Hans Albrecht was a German musicologist and university lecturer. He was professor at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.
Maryam Modjaz is a German-American astrophysicist who is a professor and Director of Equity and Inclusion at the New York University. Her research considers the death of massive stars. She was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship in 2018, which she spent at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.