Zach (Tsakh) Franz Xaver [Zach Janos Ferenc] General data:
04.06.1754 - 02.09.1832
Place of birth: Pest city (now Boutapesht city, Hungary) or Pozsony city (now Bratislava city, the Slovak Republic), the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Studied in: Academy of military equipment, Vienna city, Austrian Empire (); School of Natural Philosophy Pest City, Hungarian Kingdom (1773); Oxford University, Oxfordshire county, Kingdom of Great Britain (1785); School of the Order of the Piarists, Veszprem City, Hungarian Kingdom (1770);
Key interests: celestial mechanics, history of astronomy, physics of comets, solar physics, minor bodies of the Solar System, observational astronomy, mathematisc, astronomy, geodesy
Biography:
He was born on 4 or 13 in June 1754 in Pest City (since 1873 part Boutapest City , now Hungarian) or, as other sources say, in Pozhon city (now Bratislava city, the Slovak Republic)of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in a large family (there is information about two of his brothers who subsequently became military, about his three sisters almost nothing is known), a military doctor, Joseph Zach, from Olmutz city. Father served as chief doctor in the city; his powers extended to a military hospital, he earned additional respect as a member of the Royal Council of Governors, having groomed members of the highest royal institution. In 1765 the Queen of Hungary, Maria Theresia, granted the family the title of barons.
During 1764-1770 he was first brought up at the Jesuit school of the Priarist Order in Veszprem, where he studied French and Latin languages. Here he also studied astronomy and watched the first appearance of a bright comet in 1769.
Then the boy studied in Vienna at the Academy of Military Technology.
For some time he served in the Austrian army as a specialist in geodesy and military engineering. Being a soldier-beginner (according to some reports, he had already had the rank of captain or major at that time), he arrived in Lviv (then Lemberg city).
The young scientist was assistant to the Prefect of the Astronomical Observatory in Vienna, Joseph Xaver Lesganig, who received from the Austrian Government the task of mapping new territories in connection with the accession of Galicia to Austria in 1772 (1st division of Poland). It was in Lviv that his career began as an outstanding astronomer.Since 1778 he and J. K. Lizganig were preparing the first Ukrainian astronomical calendar "Almanach auf das Jahr ...". This yearbook was published by the Lviv printer Jozef Piller during 1778-1799.
After the death of Maria Theresa in 1780 Joseph II came to power. He abolished the Department of Mechanics at the University of Lemberg, so the astronomer lost his life and left Lemberg.
On March 18, 1783, the astronomer observed the lunar eclipse in the city of Lyon (France) at the observatory of the Royal Astronomer O. Lefevre. From May to November 1783 he worked at the Paris Observatory.
There is evidence that in 1773 he studied at the School of Natural Philosophy at Norbert Conrad and Bernard Bennyak in Pest.
In 1776 he was appointed to teach mechanics as a professor at a reorganized university.
During 1783-1786 he lived in London as a home teacher of the Saxon Ambassador to England.
In November 1783 he was already in London. Worked as a tutor to son Count Moritz Bruhl and a companion in the astronomical scientific work of the graph. He collected the observed results of English astronomers Hornsby, Brule, Herschel, Ober and Pygotov. After a mathematical assessment, he translated them into German and sent them to Bod for publication in his Jahrbuch. In the magazine, he also published the works of the graph. Subsequently, he accompanied the Count in his travels and scientific work in the observatories of England, Germany and France, studying the experience of leading astronomers of the time, and conducting astronomical observations with them and Count. The results were sent to in scientific journals. During this time he received a PhD from Philosophy and Law at Oxford University and began his scientific work by publishing in 1785 a number of astronomical observations in the English magazine Philosophical Transactions.
In 1787, at the suggestion of Duke Ernest II, on the Mount Zebergen, near Gothy, he founded the most up-to-date equipment for the observatory, which opened in the fall of 1791. He was director of the observatory until 1806.
At the end of the 18th century, he organized a "Celestial Police" group of twenty-four astronomers to prepare for the systematic search for the "missing planet" provided by the law of Titus-Bode between Mars and Jupiter.
In 1800 he founded one of the first regular astronomical journals - "Monthly Correspondence" ("Monatlische Corespodenz"), which proceeded until 1913 inclusive. He was also his editor until 1807
At his initiative and decisions in Gotha in 1796, systematic searches for a small planet of the solar planet, whose orbit, according to the "prophecy" of astronomers, I. Titsius and I. Bode, was to be between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The searches were successful and on Jan. 1, 1801, D. Piazzi announced the discovery of a new planet of the Ceres, believing that it was a comet. After calculating the orbit by C. Gauss, it was confirmed that it really is a planet.
It also belongs to him the initiative to organize the first in the history of the congress of astronomers, which took place in 1798.
In 1798 he founded a magazine called "Geographic Essemidy" (Geographische Ephemeriden), whose name was superseded from 1800 closer to the content of the publication "Monthly Correspondence of the Promotion of Land and Astronomy" ("Monatliche Correspondenz zur Bef ö rderung der Erd - und Himmelskunde "). In it he published a few of his own articles. After the death of Ernst II (the duke of Ernst Augustus, Charles Johann Leopold, Alexander Edward Saxein-Coburg-Gothic), the astronomer was forced to hand over to his former student Bernhard Augustus Lindenau the post of Director of the Zeeburg Observatory in 1806 and, at the same time, instruct him to keep his journal.
In Genoa, during 1818-1826, he published the astronomical journal Correspondance astronomique, geographique et hydraulique. From the astronomical work of the astronomer, the most important were: the compilation of a new stellar catalog together with the necessary observations by them, a large number of accurate new definitions of the positions of the sun, connected in his "Tables of the movements of the Sun".
However, he did not leave the geodesy, as shown by the measurements he carried out in Thuringen.
In 1794, he was elected to the number of foreign honorary members of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, and in 1805 a correspondent for the French Institute. And in 1807 he was elected an honorary member of the Kharkiv University.
He died on September 2, 1832 in Paris, buried in the Pyramid of Lachaise Cemetery.
In his honor, the crater on the Moon and the asteroid (999) Tsaghia, opened in 1923, are named. In addition, the asteroid number (64) Angelina was named the observatory near Marseille, organized by Zach.
Main publications:
1. Цах Франц Ксавер Новые и уточненные таблицы движения Солнца, 1792
2. Franz Xaver von Zach "Ueber Beobachtungen mit Sextanten"//"Monatliche Correspondenz zur Bef ö rderung der Erd- und Himmelskunde" (т. II, 1800)
3. Franz Xaver von Zach "Ueber die Berechnung von L ängen und Breiten aus gemessenen Abstä nden von Meridian und Perpendikel usw."//"Monatliche Correspondenz zur Bef ö rderung der Erd- und Himmelskunde" (VII, 1803)
4. Franz Xaver von Zach "Ueber d. Vorz üge d. Vollkreise vor d. Quadranten"//"Monatliche Correspondenz zur Bef ö rderung der Erd- und Himmelskunde". (VIII, 1803)
Sources:
1 Астрономическая обсерватория Львовского университета
2 ru.wikipedia.org
3 Колчинский И. Г., Корсунь А. А., Родригес М. Г. Астрономы. Биографический справочник. — Киев: Наукова думка, 1977.-С.389-390
4 Наблюдение и факт в астрономии / Колчинский И. Г. - Киев: Наукова думка, 1982.-104 с.- С. 54, 64
