A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 53. (2014)
Tanulmányok a Herman Ottó emlékév tiszteletére - Bartha Lajos: Herman Ottó csillagai
400 Bartha Lajos HERMAN Ottóné 1891 Hell Miksáról, 1720-1792. Vasárnapi Újság 37. évf. 19. sz. 297-298. IPOLYI Arnold 1854 Magyar Mythologia. Heckenast Gusztáv, Pest. LITTROW, C. [Karl] Ludwig von 1835 P. He//’s Reise nach Wardoe bei Eappland, und seine Beobachtung des Venus-Durchganges im Jahr 1769. Wien. MÁNDOKI László 1966 Herman Ottó csillagnév-gyűjtése. A Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve (1965) 169—177. NEWCOMB, Simon 1883 On Hell’s alleged Falsification in his Observation of the Transit of Venus in 1769. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (London), Vol. 43. 371—381. PINZGER Ferenc 1912 Hell és Sajnovics várdői útja. A Jézus-társaság kalocsai Érseki Katholikus Főgimnázium Értesítője 1911—1912, 3-53. 1920 Dell Miksa emlékezete. Születésének kétszázgdik évfordulójára, különös tekintettel vardői útjára I. Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Budapest. SAJNOVICS 1990 Sajnovics János naplója, 1768-1769—1770. Ford.: DEÁK András, szerk.: SZÍ] Enikő. ELTE, Budapest. (Bibliotheca Reguliana I.) TUBOLY et al. 2004 TUBOLY Vince-BARTHA Lajos-MITRE Zoltán-KESZTHELYI Sándor-MIZSER Attila- SZABO Sándor (összeáll.): A fekete Vénusz — Vénusz átvonulások a Nap előtt. Hegyháti Csillagvizsgáló Alapítvány, Hegyhátsál. VASÁRNAPI Újság 1890 Tudományos szédelgések („- o —„). 37. évf. 17. sz. 267, 270. (1890. április 27.) ZSIGMOND Győző 1999 Égitest és néphagyomány. Pallas Akadémia Kiadó, Csíkszereda. THE STARS OF OTTÓ HERMAN Keywords: Maximilian Hell, Vardo Island, history of astronomical sciences, folk astronomy The manifold life-work of Ottó Herman added valuable information to the history of astronomy, and to the folk astronomy in Hungary. In 1888, during his North-Norwegian ornithological field trip, he visited the Island of Vardö (Vardo) to research the memory of two Hungarian astronomers staying there in 1768—69; P. Maximilian Hell (Hell Miksa in Hungarian wording, 1720—1792) and P. János Sajnovics (1733—1785). Hell and Sajnovics travelled to Vardö at the request of the Danish Chamber to observe the passing through of Venus before the Sun, which event could help in determining the Earth-Sun distance. Later, Maximilian Hell was accused of falsifying the observation. Ottó Herman recorded only the place of the Hell Observatory, but he looked for the note of Hell in the church register of Vardö. This note referred to the determination of sea level (the elevation of the continent). Later he found the portrait of Hell in which he dressed in a Lapp costume. At home, he urged — first in front of himself, later in front of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences - the dropping of the accusation of falsification. On the basis of this, Ferenc Pinzger collected Maximilian Hell’s handwritten legac)^ and published it together with his detailed biography in print in 1920 and 1927. Hell was exonerated from the falsification by a researcher of the US Naval Observatory, Simon Newcomb. In the 1890’s, Ottó Herman collected the folk name of constellations and stars among nomadic stock-raisers for his monumental linguistic-ethnographical study, named the “Vocabulary of the Hungarian shepherds”. With his collection, he significantly amplified the list of folk names of stars. It also appeared from his data that certain constellations have different names in different parts of the country. It can be established as well that in some places two different constellations have the same name. It is evident from his collection that the shepherds know and recognise 11 constellations at the end of the 19th century. He specifies 91 different naming for stars and constellations in the list published in his book. [Translated by Veronika Watah] Bartha, Eajos
