[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Hi all,

Crater Schiller named for German astronomer/lawyer Julius Schiller (died 1627) is a spectacular, elongated crater 179 x 71km and thought to be a joining of two or more craters.

Schiller published his own star atlas, Coelum Stellatum Christianem (The Christian Starry Heavens) where he replaced the constellations of classical mythology with Christian/Judaic ones. Thus Corona Borealis became the Crown of Thorns, Hercules became the Three Wise Men, and perhaps most fittingly, the old constellation, Argo became Noah's Ark.

Another German astronomer/lawyer was Johann Bayer (1572-1625) who published the famous Uranometria, which included his innovative nomenclature of star designation using Greek letters and genitive forms of the Latin names hence "alpha Centauri" etc etc.

Johann Rost (1688-1727) was a German astronomer who popularised astronomy by writing and introductory text.

Erhard Weigel (1625-1699) was a prolific German astronomer and theologian who worked on the calendar especially the astronomical dating of Easter every year.

Finally, Jakob Noggerath (1788-1877) was a German mineralogist, and director of the Bonn Natural History Museum.

ZWO 178mm camera, Celestron 9.25" telescope. Approx. 2,000 frames stacked in Autostakkert!3 and sharpened in Registax.