Johann Encke was the son of a Hamburg pastor. During the Napoleonic Wars he served in the horse artillery, and then went as an assistant at the Seeberg Observatory. In 1825 he became Director of the Berlin Observatory, and remained in this post for 40 years, finally retiring to Spandau in 1864.
Encke accomplished much useful work, and was an excellent observer. However, his fame rests mainly upon his cometary work and upon his association with the discovery of the planet Neptune. In 1818 J.L. Pons discovered a comet; Encke computed the orbit and concluded that the comet was identical with those previously seen in 1786, 1795 and 1805. The period was given as 3.3 years and Encke successfully predicted the next return, that of 1822. Fittingly, the comet now bears his name. It has since been seen at every return except that of 1944; in fact it can now be followed all round its orbit. The identification of Neptune, in 1846, was due to the calculations of the French astronomer U.J.J....
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Bibliography
Cronk, G. W. (1984) Comets. New York: Enslow Publishers, pp. 243–6.
Encke, J. F. (1846) Account of the Discovery of the Planet of Le Verrier at Berlin. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 7, 153.
Freiesleben, H. C. (1971) Encke, Johann Franz. Dict. Sci. Biogr., Vol. 4, pp. 369–70.
Moore, P. (1996) The Planet Neptune, New York: John Wiley, pp. 22–4.
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Moore, P. (1997). Encke, Johann Franz (1791–1865). In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_129
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