Born Troppau, (Opava, Cech Republic), 6 December 1848
Died Vienna, Austria, 2 May 1925
Johann Palisa was an excellent astronomical observer, discovering many minor planets whose orbits he helped to determine. He came from a poor family; his father dealt in salt. Palisa married twice. Two of his daughters married astronomers, Erna to Friedrich Bidschof, astronomer in Vienna and Trieste, and Hedwig to Joseph Rheden, a keen observer and collaborator of Palisa's. Palisa's mathematical abilities appeared quite early; after finishing school in Troppau, he began to study mathematics and astronomy at the University of Vienna in 1866. The astronomers of the old Vienna Observatory (Karl von Littrow, Edmund Weiss, and Theodor Ritter von Oppolzer) enabled him to earn some money doing observational and computational work. In 1870, after completing his military service, Palisa received a position at the observatory, located in the center of town, measuring positions of stars and planets with a...
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Selected References
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Schnell, A. (2007). Palisa, Johann. In: Hockey, T., et al. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_1046
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