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BODE, JOHANN ELERT (1747–1826)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 108 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BODE, JOHANN ELERT (1747–1826) , See also:German astronomer, was See also:born at See also:Hamburg on the 19th of See also:January 1747. Devoted to See also:astronomy from his earliest years, he eagerly observed the heavens at a See also:garret window with a See also:telescope made by himself, and at nineteen began his career with the publication of a See also:short See also:work on the See also:solar See also:eclipse of the 5th of See also:August 1766. This was followed by an elementary See also:treatise on astronomy entitled Anleitung zur Kenntniss See also:des gestirnten Himmels (1768, loth ed.1844), the success of which led to his being summoned to See also:Berlin in 1772 for the purpose of computing ephemerides on an improved See also:plan. There resulted the See also:foundation by him, in 1774, of the well-known Astronomisches Jahrbuch, 51 yearly volumes of which he compiled and issued. He became director of the Berlin See also:observatory in 1786, withdrew from See also:official See also:life in 1825, and died at Berlin on the 23rd of See also:November 1826. His See also:works were highly effective in diffusing throughout See also:Germany a See also:taste for astronomy. Besides those already mentioned he wrote:—Sammlung astronomischer Tafeln (3 vols., 1776); Erlauterung der Sternkunde (1776, 3rd ed. 1808); Uranographia (1801), a collection of 20 See also:star-maps accompanied by a See also:catalogue of 17,240 stars and nebulae. In one of his numerous incidental essays he propounded, in 1776, a theory of the solar constitution similar to that See also:developed in 1795 by See also:Sir See also:William See also:Herschel. He gave currency, moreover, to the empirical See also:rule known as " Bode's See also:Law," which was actually announced by Johann See also:Daniel Titius of See also:Wittenberg in 1772. It is expressed by the statement that the proportionate distances of the several See also:planets from the See also:sun may be represented by adding 4 to each See also:term of the See also:series; 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, &c. The irregularity will be noticed of the first term, which shpuld be 11 instead of o.

(See SOLAR See also:

SYSTEM.) See J. F. See also:Encke, Berlin Abhandlungen (1827), p. xi.; H. C. See also:Schumacher. See also:Asir. Nach. v. 255, 367 (1827); See also:Poggendorff, Biog. literarisches Handworterbuch; Allgemeine deutsche Biographic, iii. 1.

End of Article: BODE, JOHANN ELERT (1747–1826)

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