HELL, Maximilian
* 15. 5. 1720, Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia
† 14. 4. 1792, Vienna, Austria
Astronomer
H. was the brother of Joseph Karol →H. After secondary school in Banska Bystrica he joined the Jesuit order in Trentschin in 1738 and began studying mathematics and physics at the Jesuit observatory in Vienna. He was invited to assist the professor of physics Joseph Franz at the Jesuit observatory and together they organized an exhibition about the novelties in physics and mathematics museum. After his graduation in 1745, H. was sent to Slovakia where he taught mathematics at the Jesuit secondary schools in Levoča, Trnava and Banská Štiavnica.
While in Trnava, he in 1751 published plans to build a new observatory at the Jesuit University and built another Observatory in Cluj. On the recommendation of his former professor, the University of Vienna in 1755 ordered him to build a new observatory and appointed him the first Director of this institution. Beginning in 1757, immediately after the works were finished, H. started publishing his internationally recognized newspaper Emphemerides Astronomicae.
H. obtained world fame by observing the transit of the planet Venus across the sun on the northern island Vardö (1769). Based on his observations he calculated the parallax of the sun and the distance between the Earth and Sun. He travelled north for being invited by Christian VII., the king of Denmark. H. was therefore detained in Copenhagen for a longer period, where he reported on his achievements at the session of the Academy of Sciences. In 1770 in Copenhagen he issued a paper in which he outlined his observations in detail. H. was a member of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, London, Bologna, Copenhagen, Göttingen and Dortheim. He published a total of 26 scientific works.
