Struve, Otto Vasilevich

Struve, Otto Vasil’evich

 

(also Otto Wilhelm von Struve). Born Apr. 25 (May 7), 1819, in Dorpat, now Tartu; died Apr. 1 (14), 1905, in Karlsruhe. Russian astronomer. Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1852–89). The son of V. Ia. Struve.

O. V. Struve became the assistant director of the Pulkovo Observatory in 1839 and was director of the observatory from 1862 to 1889. He moved to Germany in 1895.

Struve’s principal works deal with observational astronomy. He discovered more than 500 binary stars and carried out observations of planets, planetary satellites, comets, and nebulas. He made a determination of the constant of precession in 1841.

REFERENCE

Ivanov, A. A. “O. V. Struve” (obituary), Izv. Russkogo astronomicheskogo ob-va, 1905, vol. 11, no. 5–6. [24—1776–2]