Weiss Ferenc Xaver

* Nagyszombat, March 16, 1717 – † Buda, January 10, 1785 / Jesuit monk, mathematician, astronomer ; ; He completed his studies in Nagyszombat, first taught in Jesuit schools, and from 1752 was a mathematics teacher at the University of Nagyszombat. He was entrusted with organizing the university's observatory, and was then appointed director (1765). He developed the Nagyszombat observatory into one of the best-equipped observatories of the middle of the 18th century. He published his observations and observations in Nagyszombat between 1756 and 1770 as an independent regular publication under the title Observationes Astronomicae Annorum... in Observatorio Collegii Acad. Soc. Jesu Tyrnaviae... every year between 1757 and 1773. His articles also appeared in the Vienna and Berlin yearbooks. After the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773, he was the royal astronomer. When the university was established in Buda, in 1777, he was the founder and then director of the observatory in Buda Castle, with Miksa Hell as an advisor. The Buda observatory was completed by 1780, and observations began that year. In addition to the study of the eclipses of Jupiter's moons, lunar and solar eclipses, and comets, an interesting new object was also regularly observed in Buda, the planet Uranus discovered by William Herschel on March 13, 1781, which was then named Urania after Hell. In addition, he continued his teaching work at the university that had been relocated from Nagyszombat. He initiated regular weather observations and conducted geomagnetic measurements. His great merit is that he raised a generation of talented astronomers (Ferenc Bruna, Ferenc Taucher, János Sajnovics, etc.). His valuable correspondence is preserved in the University Library of Pest.