Otto Struve, 1897-1963

• Published in: Biographical memoirs of fellows of the Royal Society Vol. 10; pp. 283 - 304
• Main Author: Cowling, Thomas George
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London The Royal Society 01.11.1964
• Subjects: Astronomy; Calcium; Emission line stars; Radial velocity; Spectroscopic binary stars; Stars; Stellar rotation; Stellar spectra; Stellar spectral lines; Telescopes
• ISSN: 0080-4606; 1748-8494
• DOI: 10.1098/rsbm.1964.0017

Otto Struve was born on 12 August 1897 in Kharkov, Russia, where his father Ludwig Struve was Professor of Astronomy. He came from a distinguished family of astronomers. His great-grandfather, Wilhelm Struve, in 1839 founded the Pulkovo Observatory, the senior among the Russian observatories, and directed it for nineteen years. Wilhelm’s son, who was also an Otto Struve, followed his father as director of the Pulkovo Observatory after an interval of a few years (from 1862 to 1889). The eldest son of this earlier Otto was Hermann Struve, who was director of the Königsberg Observatory from 1895 to 1904, and of the Berlin Observatory from 1904 until his death in 1920. He organized the removal of the Observatory to a new site at Babelsberg; as the Observatory was largely furnished with new instruments he may fairly be said to have founded the Berlin-Babelsberg Observatory. The second son of Otto was Ludwig, the father of the Otto who is the subject of the present note. Otto Struve the second was to maintain the family tradition by himself becoming the founder of an observatory and the director of more than one.