Vasily Engelhardt

Vasily Pavlovich von Engelhardt (17 July 1828, Kustovichi, Grodno Region, Russian Empire (now Belarus)) - 6 May 1915, Dresden) was a Russian astronomer, landowner and public figure. Early life Engelhardt was member of the wealthy and famous Engelhardt family. He graduated from the St. Petersburg School of Law in 1847, then served in the 1st and 5th departments of the Senate. In 1853 he left government service and devoted himself to studying astronomy. Astronomer In 1875, Engelhardt settled in Dresden and built himself an observatory with his own money, where he worked alone without assistants until 1897. His main work was researching comets, asteroids, nebulae, and star clusters. In 1870 he completed the observation of 50 comets and 70 asteroids. Turning to star clusters, in 1883 he completed a catalog of more than 400 nebulae. Beginning in 1886, he observed 829 stars in Bradley's directory to determine if they had companion stars.