Franz Xaver von Zach

Baron Franz Xaver von Zach was a Hungarian astronomer born at Pest, Hungary . He studied physics in Pest, Hungary, and served for some time in the Austrian army. He taught at the University of Lemberg . He lived in Paris in 178083, and in London from 1783 to 1786 as tutor in the house of the Saxon ambassador, Hans Moritz von Brhl. In Paris and London he entered the circles of astronomers like Joseph de Lalande, PierreSimon Laplace and William Herschel. In 1786 he was appointed by Ernest II, Duke of SaxeGothaAltenburg director of the new observatory on Seeberg hill at Gotha, which was finished in 1791. At the close of the 18th century, he organised the Celestial Police, a group of twentyfour astronomers, to prepare for a systematic search for the missing planet predicted by the TitiusBode law between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres was discovered by accident just as the search was getting underway. Using predictions made of the position of Ceres by Carl Friedrich Gauss, onDecember 18011 J

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Source: Wikipedia