Astronomical symbols are abstract pictorial symbols used to represent astronomical objects, theoretical constructs and observational events in European astronomy. The earliest forms of these symbols appear in Greek papyrus texts of late antiquity. The Byzantine codices in which many Greek papyrus texts were preserved continued and extended the inventory of astronomical symbols. New symbols were further invented to represent many newly-discovered planets and minor planets discovered in the 18th to the 20th centuries.
Michel Gustave Édouard Mayor is a Swiss astrophysicist and professor emeritus at the University of Geneva's Department of Astronomy. He formally retired in 2007, but remains active as a researcher at the Observatory of Geneva. He is co-laureate of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Jim Peebles and Didier Queloz, and the winner of the 2010 Viktor Ambartsumian International Prize and the 2015 Kyoto Prize.
Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography. He was the chairman of astronomy at the University of Heidelberg and director of the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory from 1902 until his death in 1932.
Leo Anton Karl de Ball was a German-Austrian astronomer. He is credited by the Minor Planet Center as "K. de Ball" for his (sole) asteroid discovery, but seems to be best known as Leo de Ball.
The Starkenburg Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Heppenheim, Germany. It was founded in 1970, and currently has about 150 members.
Eschenberg Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Astronomical Society of Winterthur. It is located in northeastern Switzerland in Winterthur and was founded in 1979.
Stuttgart Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the association Schwäbische Sternwarte e.V.. It is located on the Uhlandshöhe in Stuttgart, Germany. Public tours have been held since 1920 and the observatory claims to be one of the oldest in Germany.
Hamburg Observatory is an astronomical observatory located in the Bergedorf borough of the city of Hamburg in northern Germany. It is owned and operated by the University of Hamburg, Germany since 1968, although it was founded in 1825 by the City of Hamburg and moved to its present location in 1912. It has operated telescopes at Bergedorf, at two previous locations in Hamburg, at other observatories around the world, and it has also supported space missions.
7167 Laupheim, provisional designation 1985 TD3, is a dark background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 12 October 1985, by American astronomers Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California. The presumed C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 7.04 hours and was named for Robert Clausen and his team at the public Laupheim Observatory in Germany.
1961 Dufour is a large background asteroid, approximately 50 kilometers in diameter, located in the outer region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 19 November 1973, by Swiss astronomer Paul Wild at Zimmerwald Observatory near Bern, Switzerland, and later named for 19th-century Swiss General Henri Dufour.
1845 Helewalda, provisional designation 1972 UC, is a carbonaceous Eoan asteroid in the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 20 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by Swiss astronomer Paul Wild at Zimmerwald Observatory near Bern, Switzerland, on 30 October 1972. The asteroid was named after Helen Gachnang, a friend of the discoverer.
1936 Lugano, provisional designation 1973 WD, is a carbonaceous Adeonian asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 26 kilometers in diameter.
1844 Susilva, provisional designation 1972 UB, is a stony Eoan asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 22 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 30 October 1972, by Swiss astronomer Paul Wild at Zimmerwald Observatory near Bern, Switzerland, and later named after a schoolfriend of the discoverer.
Bülach Observatory is a public astronomical observatory near Bülach, canton of Zürich, Switzerland.
Urania Sternwarte is a public observatory in the Lindenhof quarter of Zürich, Switzerland. Its name Urania refers to the muse of astronomy in Greek mythology.
The Mirasteilas Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Falera in the canton of Grisons in Switzerland. With its 90-centimeter telescope it is the largest publicly accessible observatory in Switzerland.
Observatory Robert A. Naef is an astronomical observatory located at Épendes, Canton of Fribourg, Switzerland at 7.13938 degrees east of Greenwich and 46.76236 degrees north latitude. Its parallax constants are : ρ sin φ' = 0.68632 and ρ cos φ' = +0.72501.
Gotha Observatory was a German astronomical observatory located on Seeberg hill near Gotha, Thuringia, Germany. Initially the observatory was dedicated to astrometry, geodetic and meteorological observation and tracking the time.
Michel Ory is a Swiss amateur astronomer and a prolific discoverer of minor planets and comets, who was one of five winners of the 2009 Edgar Wilson Award for his discovery of 304P/Ory, a periodic comet of the Jupiter family on 27 August 2008, using a 24-inch f/3.9 reflector at the Jura Observatory in Switzerland. In 2018, he was awarded a Gene Shoemaker NEO Grant which will improve the robotic survey he conducts in collaboration with Claudine Rinner at the Oukaïmeden Observatory in Morocco.
José De Queiroz is a Portuguese-born, Swiss amateur astronomer and discoverer of minor planets, as well as a restaurant manager in Falera in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.
