Johann Gottfried Koehler (15 December 1745 – 19 September 1801) was a German astronomer who discovered a number of nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies.
Koehler is best remembered for his discovery of Open Cluster M67, Elliptical Galaxy M59, and Elliptical Galaxy M60. The latter two were discovered on the same day, 11 April 1779.
He worked with the noted astronomer Johann Elert Bode, who refined and published Koehler's proposal for the symbol of Uranus.[1] [2][3]
From 1784 he was the director of Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon.[4]
References
- ^ Bode: Astronomisches Jahrbuch für das Jahr 1785. Berlin 1782, S. 191
- ^ Bode, J. E. (1784). Von dem neu entdeckten Planeten. Beim Verfaszer. pp. 95–96.
- ^ Gould, B. A. (1850). Report on the history of the discovery of Neptune. Smithsonian Institution. p. 5.
- ^ Klaus Schillinger: Johann Gottfried Köhler - Inspektor am Mathematisch-Physikalischen Salon Dresden -aktiver Beobachter des gestirnten Himmels im letzten Viertel des 18. Jahrhunderts. In: Der Meister und die Fernrohre. (Acta Historica Astronomiae Vol. 33) Frankfurt(Main) 2007, S. 261f
Hockey, Thomas (2009). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. Retrieved August 22, 2012.