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Franz Friedrich Ernst Brünnow (November 18 1821 – August 20 1891) was a German astronomer.
He was the first foreigner to become director of an American observatory, serving as director of Detroit Observatory from 1854 to 1863. He played a major role in establishing the study of astronomy in the United States at a time when the only other serious faculty was run by Benjamin Peirce at Harvard University. He introduced the teaching of rigorous German analytical methods and trained a number of students who went on to further American astronomy, including Asaph Hall and James Craig Watson (the latter succeeded him as director of Detroit Observatory). In addition, Charles Augustus Young learned German astronomical methods from Brünnow although he did not attend the University of Michigan.
He was born in Berlin and in 1851 became First Assistant to Johann Franz Encke at Berlin Observatory. He wrote the textbook Lehrbuch der Sphäischen Astronomie in 1851, which he translated to English himself in 1865 as Handbook of Spherical Astronomy. He was recruited by University of Michigan president Henry Tappan and came to Ann Arbor in 1854. Some say he came to America to escape marrying Encke's daughter.
He married Tappan's daughter Rebecca in 1857. He resigned in 1863 as a direct result of the dismissal of Tappan by the University's regents.
He became Astronomer Royal of Ireland in 1865 but resigned in 1874 due to failing eyesight. He retired to Switzerland and then to Germany, where he died in Heidelberg.