astronomy

Maurice du Martheray

Maurice du Martheray is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Maurice du Martheray rather than just read about it. In short: Maurice du Martheray (1892 – 12 April 1955) was a Swiss physician, amateur astronomer and poet. According to a eulogy published by the Swiss Astronomy Club of Geneva, he was a passionate astronomer ever since becoming a member on 2 February 1910.

Key takeaways

Maurice du Martheray belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Maurice du Martheray to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Maurice du Martheray from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Maurice du Martheray (1892 – 12 April 1955) was a Swiss physician, amateur astronomer and poet. According to a eulogy published by the Swiss Astronomy Club of Geneva, he was a passionate astronomer ever since becoming a member on 2 February 1910. After graduating as a physician and getting married, he co-founded the Flammarion Astronomical Society of Geneva with Jean-Henri Jehéber and Ami Gandillon in 1923. For the following 32 years, he would passionately develop the activities of the society as secretary general, sometimes even at the expense of his career as a dental surgeon. Maurice du Martheray died suddenly on 12 April 1955 and is resting in the cemetery of Nyon, his birthplace, on the shore of Lake Leman in Switzerland. During his over 40 years of observations he produced more than 20,000 high resolution pictures of the Sun, and more than 10,000 pictures of the Moon and the planets. After the Swiss Astronomical Society was created in Bern in November 1938, Maurice du Martheray co-edited the first issue of its magazine, ORION with Max Schürer, Privat Dozent at the University of Bern and later Professor of astronomy and director of the Astronomical Institute of the same university; with the serious amateur and producer of the almanac Der Sternenhimmel Robert A. Naef of Zürich; and with Emile Antonin of Geneva. Astronaut Claude Nicollier carried a copy of that issue in the space shuttle Endeavour in December 1993 during the first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. A crater on Mars was named in his honor by NASA in 1973.

Sources and References Notes

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Maurice du Martheray

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Maurice du Martheray claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Maurice du Martheray before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Maurice du Martheray ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Maurice du Martheray

In research: Maurice du Martheray appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Maurice du Martheray in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Maurice du Martheray is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1892 births, 1955 deaths, 20th-century Swiss astronomers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Maurice du Martheray outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Maurice du Martheray in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Maurice du Martheray means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Maurice du Martheray out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Maurice du Martheray in simple terms?

Why does Maurice du Martheray matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Maurice du Martheray?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Maurice du Martheray.