Joseph Maximilián Petzval & 3716 Petzval - Spišská Belá, Slovakia
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member Rikitan
N 49° 11.253 E 020° 27.504
34U E 460535 N 5448446
Extraterrestrial location - main belt Asteroid with official name 3716 Petzval, named after Joseph Maximilian Petzval, inventor of first objective lenses for telescopes. Terrestrial location - birth house and museum of J.M.Petzval in Spišská Belá.
Waymark Code: WMMQM9
Location: Prešovský kraj, Slovakia
Date Posted: 10/26/2014
Published By:Groundspeak Regular Member Bernd das Brot Team
Views: 8


Joseph Maximilian Petzval - 3716 Petzval

Joseph Maximilian Petzval is considered as one of the most important professors of the Viennese university in the field of applied mathematics in the 19th century. He contributed significantly to invention and construction of objective lenses for astronomic telescopes in decades of 1840’s - 1860’s.

It is natural, that one of asteroids - 3716 Petzval - is named after him. This main-belt asteroid was discovered on October 2, 1980 by Antonín Mrkos at Klet.

In 1840, Joseph Maximilian Petzval completed plans for two different objective lenses, a portrait and a landscape one. He even filed the glass for these lenses himself. Throughout the 1860s, Petzval’s objective lens remained unparalleled and contributed to the massive development of photography in its first decades.

It wasn’t until 1857 that J.M.Petzval presented his plans for a landscape objective lens to the academy in Vienna. It was produced in a similar way to the one that he had made in 1840. He called it a dialyt. This new lens proved useful not just in photography, but also in telescopes, later in cinematography and in astronomic telescopes.

Petzval’s name and his reputation are maybe best remembered in the area of astrophotography. He was a significant mathematician, inventor, founder of modern optics and photography, a professor of the University of Vienna. He worked at the university until he was 70 and then retired. He died on September 17, 1891 in Vienna.

Sources: muzeum.sk, own visit and pictures at the site

Website of the Extraterrestrial Location: [Web Link]

Website of location on Earth: [Web Link]

Celestial Body: Asteroid

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