Hungarian astronomer Maximilian Hell was born in Selmecz, Hungary in May of 1720. His formal education revolved around philosophy, mathematics and theology. In 1745, he assisted the resident astronomer, Joseph Franz at the Jesuit observatory in Vienna. Hell eventually became an ordained priest and mathematics teacher. In 1752, Hell was instructed by the Jesuits to begin building an observatory in Klausenburg, where he also served as mathematics teacher. Hell's success in building the Klausenburg observatory led to more assignments building observatories.
Hell eventually returned to Vienna, serving as court astronomer and as director of a new observatory. He remained in this position for approximately twenty-five years. For nearly forty years, he published Ephemerides Astronomicae, which covered astronomical observations and scientific studies.
King Christian VII of Denmark/Norway requested Hell conduct a scientific mission at Vardo in the Arctic Circle in 1769. Hell studied the path Venus took as it passed between the sun and the Earth. An international group of scientists in several locations across Europe and Asia took similar studies in an attempt to determine the distance from the sun to the Earth. Once Hell published the data his team collected, a controversy erupted. This data was met with skepticism and accusations of falsification due to the period of time between collection and publication. Further derision was directed at Hell as a result of accusations of data tampering levied by Carl Littrow. Littrow, one of Hell's successors, claimed he found physical evidence proving Hell had falsified data. This accusation ruined the man and tainted his reputation as a scientist until his death in 1792.
Hell remained discredited until the 1890's, when astronomer Simon Newcomb studied the alleged physical evidence discovered by Littrow a century prior. Newcomb determined that Littrow's evidence was in error, due to the astronomer's colorblindness distorting his perception of Hell's data gathering methods. Hell's reputation was vindicated, but his potential contributions to astronomy, as a result of his ruined reputation would remain unknown.
This entry also posted in the American Military University Introduction to Astronomy newsgroup.