Gottfried Kirch

Gottfried Kirch (Kirche, Kirkius) (December 18, 1639 – July 25, 1710) was a German astronomer and the first 'Astronomer Royal' in Berlin and, as such, director of the nascent Berlin Observatory.

The son of Michael Kirch, a shoemaker in Guben, Electorate of Saxony, Initially he worked as a schoolmaster in Langgrün and Neundorf near Lobenstein. He also worked as a calendar-maker in Saxonia and Franconia. He began to learn astronomy with Erhard Weigel in Jena, and with Hevelius in Danzig. In Danzig in 1667, Kirch published calendars and built several telescopes and instruments. In 1679 he invented a screw micrometer for astronomical measurements. He became an astronomer working in Coburg, Leipzig and Guben as well as from 1700 in Berlin.

In the last quarter of the 17th century, Kirch was the most-read calendar maker and counted as one of the leading German. In 1680 he discovered a comet with a telescope for the first time: Komet C/1680 V1, called Kirch's comet. In 1681 he discovered the Wild Duck Cluster M 11. In 1686 he went to Leipzig. Together with the farmer and astronomer Christoph Arnold he observed the comets of that year. In the same year he discovered the Mira variable χ Cygni. He also dedicated much time to observing the double star Mizar. He introduced three new constellations, the ″Globus cruciger″ (″Reichsapfel"), the ″Electoral Sword″ (″Kurfürstliches Schwert″) and the Sceptre of Brandenburg, which however were not recognized and adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Via Arnold he met his second wife Maria Margaretha Winkelmann (1670-1720), who had learnt astronomy from self-study and from Arnold. While jointly observing the comet of 1702, they discovered the globular cluster M 5 (May 5, 1702). In 1699, he had observed comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle but this observation was not recognized until later analysis by Joachim Schubart.

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