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Wilhelm Beer
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Wilhelm Beer
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Born
| (
1797-01-04
)
4 January 1797
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Died
| 27 March 1850
(1850-03-27)
(aged 53)
Berlin, Prussia
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Scientific career
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Fields
| astronomy
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Wilhelm Wolff Beer
(4 January 1797 – 27 March 1850) was a
banker
and
astronomer
from
Berlin
,
Prussia
, and the brother of
Giacomo Meyerbeer
.
[1]
Astronomy
[
edit
]
Beer's fame derives from his hobby,
astronomy
. He built a private
observatory
with a 9.5 cm
refractor
in
Tiergarten
, Berlin. Together with
Johann Heinrich Madler
he produced the first exact map of the
Moon
(entitled
Mappa Selenographica
) in 1834?1836, and in 1837 published a description of the Moon (
Der Mond nach seinen kosmischen und individuellen Verhaltnissen
). Both remained the best descriptions of the Moon for many decades.
In 1830, Beer and Madler created the first globe of the planet
Mars
. In 1840 they made a map of Mars and calculated its
rotation period
to be 24 h 37 min 22.7 s, only 0.1 seconds different from the actual period as it is known today.
Other work
[
edit
]
In addition to his hobby of astronomy, he helped with the establishment of a
railway
system in
Prussia
, and promoted the
Jewish
community in Berlin. In his last decade of life, he worked as a writer and
politician
. In 1849 he was elected as an MP for the first chamber of the Prussian parliament.
Named after Beer
[
edit
]
The crater
Beer
[2]
on Mars is named in Wilhelm Beer's honor and lies near
Madler
. There is also a crater called
Beer
on the
Moon
.
References
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edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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