Karl Reinmuth

Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth (April 4, 1892 in Heidelberg – May 6, 1979 in Heidelberg) was a German astronomer and a prolific discoverer of 395 minor planets.

From 1912 to 1957, Reinmuth was working as an astronomer at the Heidelberg Observatory (German: Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl) an astronomical observatory on the Königstuhl hill above Heidelberg in southern Germany. He was a member at the minor planet group at ARI between 1947 and 1950, and later became "Oberobservator" or chief-observer at Heidelberg Observatory until his retirement in 1957. Reinmuth obtained more than 12,500 precise astrometric measurements of minor planets positions on photographic plates, an enormous work task before the advent of any computer based assistance.

The initials of the minor planets 1227 through 1234, all discovered by Reinmuth, spell out "G. Stracke". Gustav Stracke was a German astronomer and orbit computer, who had asked that no planet be named after him. In this manner Reinmuth was able to honour the man whilst honoring his wish:

The outer main-belt asteroid 1111 Reinmuthia, discovered by himself at Heidelberg in 1912, was named in his honor (H 104).

Among his most notable discoveries are the two near-Earth objects (NEOs) 1862 Apollo, the namesake of the Apollo group which became the largest group of asteroids within the NEO category with nearly 8,000 members, and 69230 Hermes, famous for being a lost asteroid for more than half a century until its recovery in 2003, and for being the only unnumbered but named asteroid during that period.

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