Otto Wilhelm von Struve
Like his father, the astronomer was a pioneer in stellar physics almost 200 years ago
Not quite a household name among astronomers, Otto Wilhelm von Struve made important contributions to the field of astronomy in the late-19th century. It is widely considered that he pioneered the study of double stars, and he was an influential figure at the Pulkovo Observatory, a principal astronomical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences located in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Von Struve was born on 7 May 1819 in Dorpat, now known as Tartu, in modern-day Estonia. However, he later became a Russian citizen, having been deemed a ‘foreigner’ for the first 24 years of his life. It was clear that he was an intelligent person in his early years, which saw him graduate from the Academy of Dorpat at the age of just 15. The only thing that stopped him from attending university was that he was a year younger than the prescribed age. However, he began attending lectures as a listener at the Imperial University of Dorpat, finally completing his course at the age of 20. Meanwhile, he was helping his father at the Dorpat Observatory.
After von Struve graduated in 1839, he went to the recently opened Pulkovo Observatory and was given the role of assistant director – with the director being his father. At this time Pulkovo flaunted the best optical instrument in the world: a 38-centimetre (15-inch) refractor telescope. With this advanced piece of kit he began scrutinising the realm of stellar astronomy, creating a piece of work titled The Determination of the Constant of Precession with regard to the Proper Motion of the Solar System.
He received his masters in astronomy from the University of St Petersburg in 1841, and in 1850 he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in London. With Pulkovo’s revolutionary refractor telescope at his disposal, he was tasked with searching for new double stars and provided unprecedented measurements and details about their behaviour. This is the work that would make him so popular in the world of astronomy, especially when he continued on from his father’s work and created the Pulkovo Catalogue of Stellar Coordinates, filled with of thousands of double-star coordinates. When his father fell ill in 1858, von Struve took over management responsibilities, eventually becoming director in 1862. He maintained a firm grasp on that role until his retirement in 1889.
Pioneering work with double stars wasn’t his only area of expertise; he also went on expeditions to view solar eclipses in the mid19th century, also observing the transits of Venus, nebulae and even publishing work on Uranus’ moons, Ariel and Umbriel. Between the years of 1852 and 1889 he was a prominent member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as a member of many European scientific societies, which all benefited from his infectious intelligence. Sadly he fell ill while on his travels through Germany in 1895, passing away on 16 April 1905 in Karlsruhe, Germany.
“With a revolutionary refractor telescope, he was tasked with searching for new double stars”