Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm Klinkerfues (March 29, 1827 – January 28, 1884) was a German astronomer.

In 1851 he became an assistant to Carl Friedrich Gauss at Göttingen observatory. He got his Ph.D. in 1855. He became "director for practical astronomy" of the observatory in 1868.

In 1881 he published Tobias Mayer's grössere Mondkarte nebst Detailzeichnungen, a large moon map and set of drawings by Tobias Mayer that had gathered dust in the observatory library for 130 years.

He discovered or co-discovered a number of comets.

He died by suicide.

External links

Obituaries

• AN 108 (1884) 65/66 (http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/AN.../0108//0000050.000.html) (in German)
• MNRAS 45 (1885) 203 (http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0045//0000203.000.html)
• Obs 7 (1884) 117 (http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/Obs../0007//0000117.000.html)