468 CHRISTIAN AUGUST FRIEDRICH PETERS. 



luminous words which express the character of Professor Miller. In 

 his genial presence the young student felt encouraged to express his 

 immature thoughts, which were sure to be treated with consideration, 

 while from a wealth of knowledge the great master made the error 

 evident by making the truth resplendent. It was the greatest satisfac- 

 tion to the inexperienced investigator when his observations had been 

 confirmed by Professor Miller, and he was never made to feel dis- 

 couraged when his mistakes were corrected. The writer of this notice 

 regards it as one of the great privileges of his youth, and one of the 

 most important elements of his education, to have been the recipient 

 of the courtesies and counsel of three great English men of science, 

 who have always been ''his own ideal knights," and these noble 

 knights were Faraday, Graham, and Miller. 



CHRISTIAN AUGUST rHIEDRICH PETERS. 



Christian August Friedrich Peters was born in Hamburg, 

 Sept. 7, 1806. His father, whose circumstances did not allow him 

 to provide a school education for his sons, early recognized their 

 mathematical talents, and did his best to procure books to assist their 

 studies. The eldest son, the subject of this notice, obtained employ- 

 ment early in life from Professor Schumacher, the Director of the 

 Altona Observatory. After pursuing his studies and his labors at 

 Konigsberg and Hamburg, he was appointed in 1839 to a position in the 

 newly established Observatory at Pulkowa, near St. Petersburg. 

 Here, in the course of the following ten years, he accomplished much 

 which has made his name well known ever since to all astronomers. 

 His most important single work was perhaps the new determination of 

 the constant of nutation ; but many other productions of the same 

 period, original and critical, attest his astronomical skill and learning. 

 In 1849 he was appointed Professor of Astronomy at Konigsberg, 

 where he published his treatise on the proper motion of Sirius. He 

 subsequently (1854) took charge of the Altona Observatory (removed 

 in 1872 to Kiel), and occupied this position at the time of his death, 

 which occurred, after a severe illness of several months, on May 8, 

 1880. 



At Altona, and afterwards at Kiel, he conducted the " Astro- 

 nomische Nachrichten," which continued under his management, as 

 before, to be the principal medium for the exchange of information 

 and suggestions by the astronomers of all civilized nations. His own 

 work iu the latter years of his life was mainly geodetic. 



