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1858-1884: the years of Julius Schmidt in the Athens Observatory |
In December 4, 1858, Director of the Athens Observatory is nominated the German researcher Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt.
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The building of the Athens Observatory in 1850 (backside).
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| Utilizing the Sina's family donation, J. Schmidt takes care of the instruments repairing and maintenance. He enriches the Observatory's library with many scientific books and journals. Some of them are donated by observatories. Schmidt starts the editing of Publications of the Observatory of Athens. |
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The astronomical work of J. Schmidt |
During the 25 years of his work in the Athens Observatory, he performs more than 70000 observations of variable stars and discovers few periodic variables and two Novae stars. Most of the results are published in the Astronomische Nachrichten journal.
For many years, J. Schmidt studies the planets Mars and Jupiter and draws the changes on their surfaces. He observes the bright comet of the 1860 and two years latter discovers a periodic comet. The clear sky allows him to make thousands observations of meteors. He also has the opportunity to observe a number of Solar eclipses and many eclipses of Moon.
The Topographical Chart of the Moon, "Chaptre der Gebirge des Mondes" published in Berlin, is perhaps his mostly brilliant work. In an area of two meters diameter, consisting of 25 parts and representing the visible surface of the Moon, there are drawn about 30000 craters as observed with the 158mm Ploessl telescope. Significant is also his study of the crater Linne showing apparent morphological changes. |
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The earth science studies |
Julius Schmidt reorganizes the meteorological service of the Observatory of Athens. He performs meteorological observations in many places in Greece and regularly sends data to the Observatory of Paris. These results are presented in his work "Beitrage zur Physikalischen von Griechland" (1864).
Very significant is his interest in the field of seismology. With the help of volunteers, he records more than 3000 earthquakes and publishes his "Studienn uber Erdbeben" (1975). So well, few years he observes the Santorini volcano, since the erection in 1866, and publishes the study of this and of three other volcanos (Etna, Vesuvius, Stromboli) in 1874.
Julius Schmidt makes some journeys with the aim of geographical studies and performs archeological investigations to discover the ancient Troy. |
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