The New International Encyclopædia/Mädler, Johann Heinrich

MÄDLER, mā′dlẽr, Johann Heinrich (1794-1874). A German astronomer, born in Berlin. He began to study natural science at the University of Berlin in 1822, and in 1830 was appointed an instructor in the Berlin Normal School. As the result of his astronomical observations he published a map of the moon in 1834-36, and in the latter year was chosen assistant in the Berlin Observatory. In 1837 he published his Allgemeine Selenographie, and in 1840 was made director of the observatory at Dorpat, Russia. There he made extensive researches in regard to the fixed stars, and in 1846 published Die Centralsonne, propounding the theory, now discarded, that the centre of the stellar universe is located in the Pleiades. In 1865 he returned to Germany. His works in connection with variable and double stars is of great value, and established him among the eminent astronomers of the century. His further publications include Der Fixsternhimmel (1858) and Geschichte der Himmelskunde (1872-73).