Zach
NAME: Zach, Franz Xaver von
ACHIEVEMENT(S): German-Hungarian astronomer who set up an important association of European astronomers systematically to observe the sky
NICKNAME/ALIAS: Freiherr von (Baron of) Zach
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: 4 June 1754, at Pest or Bratislava, Hungary
DATE/PLACE/AGE AT DEATH: 2 September 1832, at Paris, France. Aged 78
DISCIPLINE: Astronomer
FIELD: Astronomy
LANGUAGE: German, Hungarian and French
PARENTS: ?
SIBLINGS: ?
SPOUSE: ?
CHILDREN: ?
EDUCATION: ?
MAJOR WORK: 'Correspondance astronomique, geographique, hydrographique et
statistique', 1818-26
LIFE AND TIMES: Franz Xaver von Zach was born in 1754 at either Pest (now part of Budapest) in Hungary or Pressburg (now Bratislava), Slovakia, into an aristocratic family, his father being a well-known physician who practiced in both cities.
In 1769, when Zach was aged 15, his interest in astronomy was triggered by a transit of Venus and the appearance of a comet in the same year. In 1770 he joined the Austrian army as an engineering officer, but left soon afterwards, spending the next few years in Berlin and London as tutor to the children of Graf Mortiz von Bruhl, the ambassador of Saxony, an amateur astronomer with his own private observatory.
In 1786, at the age of 32, Zach entered the service of Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg, with the title of Chief Observing Officer. In 1791 Duke Ernst built an astronomical observatory under Zach's direction on the Seeberg mountain (near Gotha) where Zach remained as director until 1806.
During this period Zach formed an association of 24 astronomers throughout Europe, which included <in association with> Piazzi*, <in association with> Gauss* (who visited Zach at his observatory), and <in association with> Olbers* (whose paper on a new method of calculating the orbits of comets he published in 1797), each of whom was given a sector of the sky to be systematically searched for new comets and for the planet expected (on the basis of <influenced by> Bode's* Law) to be found between Mars and Saturn. The principal result was the discovery of several minor planets (asteroids). The first, Ceres, was found by Piazzi in 1801.
In 1806 Duke Ernst died, and Zach left the observatory and became chief steward to the Duchess and in 1813 accompanied her to Italy.
Remaining in Genoa for several years. In 1831, having been troubled by kidney stones for many years, he travelled to Paris to seek a cure, but died there of cholera the following year.
ASSESSMENT: His most lasting achievement was the editing of three scientific journals during the interval 1798-1826.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None
ONELINER: Franz Zach, leading 19th-century astronomer
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
EB, DSB