克里斯蒂安·奥古斯特·弗里德里希·彼得斯1806—1880

生平

1806年9月7日彼得斯出生于汉堡，是一位商人的儿子。虽然他没有完整地上完高中，但获得了良好的数学和天文学知识。

1826年他成为了阿尔托纳天文台海因里希·舒马赫的助理。在舒马赫的鼓励下，他继续攻读天文学，并在柯尼斯堡大学弗里德里希·贝塞尔的指导下获得了博士学位。1834年，他成为汉堡天文台助理，1839年转至普尔科沃天文台工作。1849年受聘为柯尼斯堡大学天文学教授，不久，接替弗里德里希·贝塞尔担任柯尼斯堡大学天文台台长。1854年他出任阿尔托纳天文台台长兼《天文学通报》总编。彼得斯一生都在编辑这本杂志，共主管该刊物58期。1872年他随天文台迁至基尔，在那里继续着自己的工作。

1866年，被选为瑞典皇家科学院外籍院士。由于他在1856年所记录的有关使用平均绝对离差的精度估计，彼得斯成为了有关误差理论中的专用名词。1852年，彼得斯被授予英国皇家天文学会金质奖章。

1880年5月8日他在基尔去世，享年73岁。

子女

他的儿子卡尔·弗里德里希·威廉·彼得斯（Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Peters）也是一名天文学家。

Christian August Friedrich Peters (7 September 1806 – 8 May 1880) was a German astronomer. He was the father of astronomer Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Peters. He was born in Hamburg and died in Kiel.

Peters was the son of a merchant and, although he did not attend secondary school regularly, he obtained a good knowledge of mathematics and astronomy. In 1826 he became assistant to Heinrich Christian Schumacher at Altona Observatory. Schumacher encouraged him to study astronomy and Peters did a PhD under Friedrich Bessel at the University of Königsberg. In 1834 he became an assistant at Hamburg Observatory and in 1839 joined the staff of Pulkovo Observatory. In 1849 he became professor of astronomy at Königsberg and soon after succeeded Bessel as director of the observatory there. In 1854 he became director of the Altona Observatory and editor of the Astronomische Nachrichten. Peters edited the journal for the rest of his life, being responsible for 58 volumes of the journal. In 1872 the observatory moved to Kiel and he moved there and continued in his post. In 1866, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Peters became a name in the literature on the theory of errors for his 1856 note on the estimation of precision using absolute deviations from the mean.

Peters won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1852.

Biography

H. C. Freiesleben Peters, Christian August Friedrich Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol. 10, 542-3.