Nationality Germany Died 1740 | Name Christfried Kirch Fields Astronomy | |
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Born 24 December 1694Guben ( 1694-12-24 ) Parents Maria Margarethe Kirch, Gottfried Kirch | ||
Christfried Kirch (* December 24, 1694 in Guben; † March 9, 1740 in Berlin) was a German astronomer and almanac publisher.
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Life and Work
He was the son of the astronomers Gottfried Kirch and Maria Margaretha Kirch. Christfried had already participated in the of his father at the age of 12. His astronomical studies began in Leipzig and Danzig. From 1716 until his death in 1740 he was, like his father, Direktor of the Berlin Observatory, in spite of repeated requests from the Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. In 1717 he had received his father's former post at the Koniglich Preusischen Sozietat der Wissenschaften. In the continuation of his father's work, especially in almanac calculation, he was aided by his mother and his younger sister .
In 1726 Kirch was made responsible for the Academy's library together with, who was also at the Observatory at this time. Up until then, the secretary of the Academy, Johann Theodor Jablonski, was responsible for this activity. In 1735 the astronomer was taken on as librarian.
Christfried Kirch published many articles in several journals. He described the comet of 1718, observations of sunspots and the surface of Venus and of Jupiter, of occultation of the moons of Jupiter, of variable stars, as well as the Northern Lights and the Earth's magnetic field. In 1730 appeared his greatest work Observationes astronomicae selectiores in observatorio regio Berolinensi habitae, quibus adjectae sunt annotationes quaedam et animadversiones geographicae et chronologicae, aliaque ad astronomicam scientiam pertinentia.