STERNBERG Paul Karlovich

Pavel Karlovich Sternberg was born April 2, 1865 in the city of Orel. His father kept a small trading business.

A year earlier than usual Sternberg went to school. In 15 years my father gave to Paul Karlovich telescope. From the roof of his house Sternberg observed in this tube the starry sky.

In 1883, Paul Karlovich entered Moscow University. He immediately began work at the Moscow University Astronomical Observatory, under the guidance of FA. Bredikhina.

After graduating in 1887, University Sternberg first became a freelance assistant, and since 1890 a staff astronomer observatory
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. First, . another student, . Sternberg's scientific work "On the rotation of Jupiter and its spots" (especially "Red Spot"), . which Paul Karlovich described small displacements spots and change its size, . found they received in 1888 a gold medal Faculty,
. This work was published in 1897.

Sternberg involved not only observing the stars, but also designed various devices.

Pavel Karlovich made a great contribution in different fields of science.

The first of them - gravimetry. Sternberg took up her late vosmedisyatyh years. His main achievement in this direction was the study of gravitational anomalies in Moscow in 1915-1917. Sternberg had precise measurements of gravity in line passing through Moscow observatory Neskuchny garden, Zyuzin, narrow and further through Podolsk, ie. across the strike of the anomaly (section Sternberg). Works Sternberg stimulated geodetic gravimeter gravimetric and exploration of mineral resources in Russia. Stenberg work in this area were marked with a silver medal of the Russian Geographical Society.

OTHER direction of Paul Karlovich began investigation of the motion of the poles - variations of latitude, begun in 1891. His master's thesis was called "The breadth of the Moscow Observatory in connection with the movement of the poles," in which he clarified the breadth of Moscow, and his result was generally accepted (55 б° 45'19 .802 "). He took into account that there are some slight provision within the Earth's axis of rotation (the end of the axis describes a curve on a surface in a big way two or three dozen meters). This fact is predicted Leonhard Euler, defining a period of 305 days, and explained Chandler, defining a period of 428 days, not because of the absolute hardness of the Earth. At the suggestion of Sternberg established global network of five monitoring stations - Service Latitude.

Pavel Karlovich has become one of the first who started in the late nineteenth century to use the photo for precise measurements in astronomy, especially in the study of binary stars. Since 1902 Sternberg spent many observations of astronomical objects, checking the validity of new methods - astronomical photometry.

In 1913, Sternberg defended his doctoral thesis "Some applications of photography to the exact measurements in astronomy".

Almost simultaneously with the scientific activities Sternberg, he started teaching - first at a private school, then at the university, since 1901 - at the University for Women.

In 1916, Paul Karlovich became director of the Moscow observatory.

In 1905 Sternberg was in RSDLP, acted under the pseudonyms of "Moon", "Garibaldi", "Eros", "Vladimir". He helped draw up a detailed plan of the revolutionaries in Moscow, explaining that the study of gravity anomalies. Participated in the Revolution, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Eastern Front in 1919.

Died Sternberg from February 1, 1920 in Moscow.

Name given Sternberg created in 1931 by the Joint State Astronomical Institute, and later in the crater on the side of the moon.