K. Staubermann
ABSTRACT
In 1801 Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the first minor planet ‚Ceres‘ at Palermo Observatory. Piazzi at the time was engaged in compiling a star catalogue and when he re-observed an eighth-magnitude ‚star‘ as part of his survey he found that it had moved. Indeed, several observers had been looking for planets in the gap between Mars and Jupiter at the time.
Piazzi’s great discovery led to an even more intensified search and soon more minor
planets were discovered. This talk will trace the search for new planets from Piazzi’s early discovery to the making of new start charts, eventually leading to the discovery of the planet ‚Neptune‘ in 1846. The focus of my talk will be on some of the practices employed for producing the new charts, looking at instrument-makers involved like Carl Steinheil, significant observers like Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, and the manifold challenges they faced in their day-to-day work.