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Dembowski, Ercole

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  • First Online:
Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers

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Alternate Name

Dembowski, Hercules

Born Milan, (Italy), 12 January 1812

Died Albizzate, (Lombardy), Italy, 19 January 1881

Baron Ercole Dembowski observed double stars with unprecedented accuracy, remeasuring almost all stars listed in the Dorpat Catalogue. His instructions and suggestions on how to measure double stars with the micrometer are still considered of great value for the observer.

The son of Giovanni Dembowski, a nobleman of Polish descent and general in the army of the Kingdom of Italy founded by Emperor Napoleon I, Ercole Dembowski was orphaned in 1825 at the age of 13. Dembowski enlisted in the Austrian Imperial Royal Navy, eventually rising to become a commissioned officer. He retired from the navy in 1843 for reasons of health and settled in Naples. In Naples, Dembowski met Antonio Nobile, an astronomer at the Capodimonte Observatory. Encouraged by Nobile, Dembowski purchased a 5-in refractor with which he started to measure double stars from his observatory in San...

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Selected References

  • Aitken, R. G. (1935). The Binary Stars. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Dembowski, E. (1883). Misure micrometriche di stelle doppie e multiple fatte negli anni 1852–1878. Rome: Salviucci.

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  • Huggins, William (1878). “Address Delivered by the President, Mr. Huggins, on Presenting the Gold Medal of the Society to Baron Dembowski.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society38: 249–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Milano, Italy

    Raffaello Braga

Authors
  1. Raffaello Braga
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Correspondence to Raffaello Braga .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Science, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, USA

    Thomas Hockey

  2. University of California, Irvine School of Physical Sciences, Irvine, CA, USA

    Virginia Trimble

  3. Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Thomas R. Williams

  4. Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, USA

    Katherine Bracher

  5. York Univesity, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Richard A. Jarrell

  6. University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

    Jordan D. Marché II

  7. University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    JoAnn Palmeri

  8. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Daniel W. E. Green

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Braga, R. (2014). Dembowski, Ercole. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_350

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