Franz Friedrich Ernst Brünnow was a German astronomer. He was born in Berlin, and attended the Friedrich-Wilhelm gymnasium. In 1839 he entered the University of Berlin, where he studied mathematics, astronomy and physics, as well as chemistry, philosophy and philology. After graduating as Ph.D. in 1842 he took an active part in astronomical work at the Berlin Observatory, under the direction of J. F.

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  • Franz Friedrich Ernst Brünnow was a German astronomer. He was born in Berlin, and attended the Friedrich-Wilhelm gymnasium. In 1839 he entered the University of Berlin, where he studied mathematics, astronomy and physics, as well as chemistry, philosophy and philology. After graduating as Ph.D. in 1842 he took an active part in astronomical work at the Berlin Observatory, under the direction of J. F. Encke, contributing numerous important papers on the orbits of comets and minor planets to the Astronomische Nachrichten. He was the first foreigner to become director of an American observatory, serving as director of Detroit Observatory from 1854 to 1863. He played a major role in establishing the study of astronomy in the United States at a time when the only other serious faculty was run by Benjamin Peirce at Harvard University. He introduced the teaching of rigorous German analytical methods and trained a number of students who went on to further American astronomy, including Asaph Hall and James Craig Watson (the latter succeeded him as director of Detroit Observatory). In addition, Charles Augustus Young learned German astronomical methods from Brünnow although he did not attend the University of Michigan. He was born in Berlin and in 1851 became First Assistant to Johann Franz Encke at Berlin Observatory. He wrote the textbook Lehrbuch der Sphäischen Astronomie in 1851, which he translated to English himself in 1865 as Handbook of Spherical Astronomy. He was recruited by University of Michigan president Henry Tappan and came to Ann Arbor in 1854. Some say he came to America to escape marrying Encke's daughter. He married Tappan's daughter Rebecca in 1857. He resigned in 1863 as a direct result of the dismissal of Tappan by the University's regents. He became Astronomer Royal of Ireland in 1865 but resigned in 1874 due to failing eyesight. He retired to Switzerland and then to Germany, where he died in Heidelberg. His headstone still stands in the Bergfriedhof, the old cemetery in Heidelberg.
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  • Franz Friedrich Ernst Brünnow was a German astronomer. He was born in Berlin, and attended the Friedrich-Wilhelm gymnasium. In 1839 he entered the University of Berlin, where he studied mathematics, astronomy and physics, as well as chemistry, philosophy and philology. After graduating as Ph.D. in 1842 he took an active part in astronomical work at the Berlin Observatory, under the direction of J. F.
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  • Franz Brünnow
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