Wilhelm Albrecht Oeltzen - The Lost Astronomer, RE Mr. Moore.

[Solfe]

A while ago, Roger E. Moore posted on the "A. Oe." or "AOe" catalogs. I found it intriguing, as Wilhelm Albrecht Oeltzen was processing Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander's Zones a decade or two before his "disappearance". This was way back in the 1870s, which was a time of upheaval and population shifts in Europe and elsewhere. He was globetrotter, so it would not be too unlikely for him to have settled down in some quiet place to write, watch the sky and/or retire. I could find no death notice, obituary or anything else on him.

I thought I would post a copy of a blog post I made last year to see if anyone could share anything that might enlighten me on this astronomer, his work or other contemporaneous astronomers.

Wilhelm Albrecht Oeltzen was German astronomer and author of several books. He is known for the processing of a part of Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander's Zones from 1849-1852 in Bonn Germany. Often these are labeled "A. Oe." or "AOe" in catalogs. This was a two step process, I am uncertain if the abbreviations differentiate the two projects. In 1875, he disappeared. I have been unable to find any reference to what he was doing at that time.


Since the 1870s are an interesting time period, it would be no surprise that the man simply passed away of natural causes, far from home.


Notes compiled:

• Born on Oct 2nd, 1824.
• Studied at University of Göttingen in 1846.
• First Assistant at Vienna Observatory 1849-1859, before moving to The Paris Observatory.
• The Oeltzen's catalogue of Argelander's Southern Zones. 1857-58.
• The Oeltzen's catalogue of Argelander's Northern Zones. 1851-52.
• Schwerd's Beobachtungen von Circumpolarsternen in mittleren Positionen published in 1856, with Friedrich Magnus Schwerd.
• Disappeared in 1875.

The original copy of my blog post is here, BUT what may be of more interest to the members of the forum is a link to his books. This link is to site hosted by the University of Pennsylvania and hosts many public domain works. It is very spartan website loaded with great data.

[Roger E. Moore]

Most excellent, thank you!

[plphy]

It seems the German Wikipedia entry on Oeltzen has just been updated a little bit. Nothing really substantial, but the "Weblinks" section links to lots of publications by Oeltzen, and the Talk page mentions a source which claims he died in Hannover in 1879.

Regards,
Thomas

[Solfe]

It seems the German Wikipedia entry on Oeltzen has just been updated a little bit. Nothing really substantial, but the "Weblinks" section links to lots of publications by Oeltzen, and the Talk page mentions a source which claims he died in Hannover in 1879.

Regards,
Thomas

Thanks!

[Solfe]

I should elaborate... It seems he might have also died in 1875 in Bonn, but I have a second source which ebenda/ibid him as a source in 1879 which is weird. I see he was a calculator in Berlin in 1873. I had notes to that effect, but I didn't write any sources and it is all in German.

[plphy]

It seems he might have also died in 1875 in Bonn

Could this possibly confuse Oeltzen and Argelander who did die in Bonn in 1875?

Thomas

[Solfe]

Could this possibly confuse Oeltzen and Argelander who did die in Bonn in 1875?

Thomas

Hmm... With me, that is a 99% certainty. I can read a bit of German, but probably not well enough to catch on if "Oeltzen" was the subject of one sentence, "Argelander" the next and figure out which "He..." is being referenced in a third.

It is entirely possible that I wrote my notes in German without translation because I thought that was happening, but now can't remember. I was planning on asking for help, but forgot the details of need.