Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters

Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters was a German astronomer. He was born on September 19, 1813 in Coldenbüttel, Schleswig-Holstein (in northern Germany). He studied astronomy and mathematics at the University of Berlin with the astronomer Johann Franz Encke (discoverer of the comet that bears his name) and was an assistant to Carl Friedrich Gauss in Göttingen.

In 1838 he moved to Sicily to dedicate himself to geodesic work and was appointed director of that country's department, but in 1848 he was exiled for sympathizing with the Sicilian rebels, joining them and taking part in the combats with the highest rank. After the capture of Palermo he fled to France, later to Constantinople. In 1854 he moved to the United States. He worked at the Harvard University Observatory and at the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York, and in 1858 he was appointed director of the Litchfield Observatory in Clinton, New York.

Peters was a famous astronomer because from 1861 to 1889 he discovered 48 asteroids (such as (72) Feronia, and (145) Adeona), and because he generated excellent star charts. He died on July 18, 1890.