astronomy

Wolf Bickel

Wolf Bickel 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 Wolf Bickel rather than just read about it. In short: Wolf Bickel (born 6 July 1942, Bensberg) is a German amateur astronomer and a prolific discoverer of asteroids, observing at his private Bergisch Gladbach Observatory, Germany. He is the most successful German discoverer of minor planets.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Wolf Bickel (born 6 July 1942, Bensberg) is a German amateur astronomer and a prolific discoverer of asteroids, observing at his private Bergisch Gladbach Observatory, Germany. He is the most successful German discoverer of minor planets.

Biography Bickel studied electrical engineering at RWTH Aachen University and finished his studies in 1969. He became enthusiastic about astronomy, when he received a celestial chart and Galilean binoculars as a gift from his grandmother at the age of 16. Bickel began to grind parabolic mirrors to build his own telescopes. In 1995, he built a 0.6-meter aperture telescope and discovered his first minor planet, the main-belt asteroid (14053) 1995 YS25 the same year. He still uses this self-made telescope as of today. He lives in Bergisch Gladbach, in the Cologne–Bonn Region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The Minor Planet Center confused Bickel's home town with the location of his observatory, which is located 30 kilometers from his place of residence. Bickel named 12564 Ikeller – an asteroid of the Koronis family, and his one and only named discovery – after his wife, Ingeborg Bickel–Keller (b. 1941).

Honors and awards The 12-kilometer sized asteroid 4324 Bickel, discovered by American astronomer Laurence Taff in 1981, was named in his honor.

Minor planet discoveries

Official MPC discoveries As of 2017, he is credited by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) with the discovery of 665 numbered minor planets during 1995–2010.

Comparison with German discoverers In terms of total discoveries, Bickel is the most successful German discoverer of asteroids, ahead of (professional) astronomer Freimut Börngen and the first amateur astronomer to claim this honor in more than 150 years. The comparison was published by Erwin Schwab in the journal of the German astronomical society "Vereinigung der Sternfreunde" in 2013, and applies a different metric than used by the MPC.

List

This is a list of Wolf Bickel's officially discovered (numbered) minor planets, as credited by the Minor Planet Center.

References

External links Bickel overtakes Börgen as most successful discoverer of minor planets, (German), VdS-Journal Nr. 47

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wolf Bickel

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wolf Bickel 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 Wolf Bickel 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 Wolf Bickel 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 Wolf Bickel

In research: Wolf Bickel 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 Wolf Bickel 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: Wolf Bickel is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1942 births, 20th-century German astronomers, 21st-century German astronomers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wolf Bickel 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 Wolf Bickel in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wolf Bickel 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 Wolf Bickel out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wolf Bickel in simple terms?

Why does Wolf Bickel 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 Wolf Bickel?

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 Wolf Bickel.