Resolute and Undertaking Characters: The Lives of Wilhelm and Otto Struve

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxv

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2. Family Origins and Wilhelm’s Childhood

   • Alan H. Batten

   Pages 1-12

3. Student Days at Dorpat University

   • Alan H. Batten

   Pages 13-22

4. Astronomy at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century

   • Alan H. Batten

   Pages 23-29

5. Measuring the Earth

   • Alan H. Batten

   Pages 30-44

6. The Great Refractor

   • Alan H. Batten

   Pages 45-65

7. The Founding of Pulkovo

   • Alan H. Batten

   Pages 66-88

8. The Astronomical Capital of the World

   • Alan H. Batten

   Pages 89-112

9. Measuring the Sky

   • Alan H. Batten

   Pages 113-130

10. The Early Pulkovo Years

    • Alan H. Batten

    Pages 131-144

11. “Etudes d’Astronomie Stellaire”

    • Alan H. Batten

    Pages 145-155

12. Wilhelm’s Illness and Last Years

    • Alan H. Batten

    Pages 156-167

13. The Transition

    • Alan H. Batten

    Pages 168-180

14. The Companion of Procyon and the Transits of Venus

    • Alan H. Batten

    Pages 181-195

15. The 30-Inch Refractor

    • Alan H. Batten

    Pages 196-208

16. Mapping the Sky

    • Alan H. Batten

    Pages 209-218

17. Otto’s Retirement and Last Years

    • Alan H. Batten

    Pages 219-234

18. Epilogue the Family Tradition

    • Alan H. Batten

    Pages 235-244

19. Back Matter

    Pages 245-259

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My interest in the history of the Struve family is long-standing but lay dormant until 1972, when I found myself organizing a symposium of the International Astronomical Union in memory of the second Otto Struve. To satisfy my own curiosity, I investigated the precise relationships of the famous astronomers in the family and published an account of them, based mainly on secondary sources. The exercise made me a ware that there was no biography in English of the first and probably still the greatest astronomer in the clan -­ Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve. Wilhelm's son, the first Otto, wrote an account (in German) of his father's life, intended primarily for family and close friends and --though printed-- not generally available. Through the kindness of a family member I have a copy from which I have been able to work. The Soviet historian of science, Z. K. Sokolovskaya, wrote a biography in Russian, in 1964, to mark the centenary of Wilhelm's death. This had a limited edition, and my efforts to obtain a copy failed. Neither work has, in its entirety, been translated into English, although Michael Meo of Oakland, California, and Kevin Krisciunas of Hilo, Hawaii, have kindly made available to me their unpublished translations of some sections of the latter. In the of a complete copy, however, when I decided to attempt an English­ absence language biography, I thought it best to do so independently of Sokolovskaya's.

• astronomy
• earth
• observatory
• stars

`Working from primary sources, Dr. Batten has produced a fascinating and thoughtful account that is both important and entertaining - a fine addition to the growing number of astronomical biographies, and a significant contribution to the history of the science, because of the author's attempt to humanize the story of scientific achievement.'
R. Baum, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 89 (1988)

• Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, Victoria, Canada

  Alan H. Batten

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