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Wilhelm Beer
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Beer, Wilhelm
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View of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, M31).
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Born:
Jan. 4, 1797, Berlin [Germany]
Died:
March 27, 1850, Berlin (aged 53)
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Beer, Wilhelm
Beer, Wilhelm Wilhelm Beer.

Wilhelm Beer

German banker
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History

Wilhelm Beer (born Jan. 4, 1797, Berlin [Germany]—died March 27, 1850, Berlin) was a German banker and amateur astronomer who (with Johann Heinrich von MĂ€dler) constructed the most complete map of the Moon of his time, Mappa Selenographica (1836). The first lunar map to be divided into quadrants, it contained a detailed representation of the Moon’s face and was accompanied, in 1837, by a volume providing micrometric measurements of the diameters of 148 craters and the elevations of 830 mountains.

The Mappa Selenographica remained unsurpassed until 1878, when J.F. Julius Schmidt’s more detailed map appeared. Beer and MĂ€dler also published (1830) a description and map of Mars that was the first to depict the light and dark areas.

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