1. Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography.
22 Facts About Max Wolf
1. 2.
Max Wolf was the chairman of astronomy at the University of Heidelberg and director of the Heidelberg-Konigstuhl State Observatory from 1902 until his death in 1932.
3.
Max Wolf was born in Heidelberg, Germany on 21 June 1863, the son of medical doctor Franz Wolf.
4.
Max Wolf's father encouraged an interest in science and built an observatory for his son in the garden of the family home.
5.
Max Wolf attended his local university and, in 1888, at the age of 25, was awarded a Ph.
6.
Max Wolf spent one year of post-graduate study in Stockholm, the only significant time he would spend outside of Heidelberg in his life.
7.
Max Wolf returned to the University of Heidelberg and accepted the position of privat-docent in 1890.
8.
Max Wolf proved to be not only a capable supervisor but a successful fundraiser.
9.
Max Wolf immediately designed and ordered a double refractor telescope from American astronomer and instrument builder John Brashear.
10.
In 1910 Max Wolf proposed to the Carl Zeiss optics firm the creation of a new instrument which would become known as the planetarium.
11.
Max Wolf wrote a long obituary for Barnard upon his death in 1923.
12.
Max Wolf himself was an active researcher, contributing numerous papers in many areas of astronomy up to the end of his life.
13.
Max Wolf died in Heidelberg on 3 October 1932, at the age of 69.
14.
Max Wolf started his career as a comet hunter and continued to discover them throughout his life.
15.
One of the many significant contributions Max Wolf made was in the determination of the nature of dark nebulae.
16.
Barnard, Max Wolf proved, by careful photographic analysis, that dark nebulae were huge clouds of fine opaque dust.
17.
In 1919 Max Wolf published a catalog of the locations of over one thousand stars along with their measured proper motion.
18.
Max Wolf continued to add proper motion star discoveries to this catalog throughout his life, with the catalog eventually totaling over 1500 stars, many more than all of his competitors combined.
19.
Barnard and Max Wolf were continued by Frank Elmore Ross and George Van Biesbroeck through the mid-20th century.
20.
Max Wolf pioneered the use of astrophotographic techniques to automate the discovery of asteroids, as opposed to older visual methods, as a result of which asteroid discovery rates sharply increased.
21.
Max Wolf discovered 887 Alinda in 1918, which is recognized as an Earth-crossing Amor asteroid.
22.
Pawona is a combination of "Palisa" and "Max Wolf" joined with a Latin feminine suffix.