JOHANN HIERONYMUS

SCHROTER (1745-1816)  , German astronomer, was born at Erfurt on the 3oth of August 1745 . Having studied law at Gottingen, he became chief magistrate at Lilienthal, near Bremen, in 1788 . Here he built an observatory, and, equipped in 1785 by a 7-ft. reflector by Herschel, and later by a 13-ft. reflector by Johann Gottlieb Friedrich Schrader of Kiel, he made his famous observations on the surface features of the moon and planets . His work was ruined in 1813 by the French under Vandamme, who destroyed his books, writings and observatory; he never recovered from the catastrophe, and died on the 29th of August 1816 .