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- He introduced corrected observations for the so-called personal equation, a statistical bias in measurement characteristic of the observer himself that must be eliminated before results can be considered reliable, and he made a systematic study of the causes of instrumental errors.
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Apr 17, 2024 · Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, German astronomer whose measurements of positions for about 50,000 stars and rigorous methods of observation took astronomy to a new level of precision. He was the first to measure the parallax, and hence the distance, of a star other than the Sun. Learn more about Bessel’s life and work.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (German:; 22 July 1784 – 17 March 1846) was a German astronomer, mathematician, physicist, and geodesist. He was the first astronomer who determined reliable values for the distance from the sun to another star by the method of parallax .
Now known as the Cylinder Function or the Bessel Function, the solution when graphed has the shape of a dampened sine wave. It is used today to describe several physical phenomena, including the movement of a speaker mem-brane for creating sound and the propagation of electromagnetic waves along wires [2, 3].
- David E. Falkner
- 2021
His observation of tiny irregularities in the orbit of Uranus, which he concluded were caused by an unknown planet beyond, led to the discovery of Neptune. His mathematical functions for studying planetary motions became widely used in solving a wide range of differential equations.
Jul 2, 2017 · Friedrich Bessel, one of the most skilled astronomical observers of his time, made the first published determination of stellar parallax and distance, produced numerous volumes of his own observations, reduced observations of others, and contributed to advanced mathematics and celestial mechanics.
Nov 1, 2018 · Bessel also discovered the so called “Personal Equation,” the effect of the observer’s personality and circumstances on the science of astrometry. And he was one of the first to identify the systematic errors that derive from using scientific instruments.
Nov 22, 2020 · It was Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel who won the race in 1838 by announcing that the distance to the double-star system 61 Cygni is 10.4 light-years. This proved that stars are not just a little farther away from us than planets, but more than a million times farther – a truly transformational result that totally revised the scale of the Universe ...
