Hans Schjellerup

Hans Carl Frederik Christian Schjellerup (8 February 1827 – 13 November 1887) was a Danish astronomer.

Initially he was apprenticed as a watch maker, but in 1848 he passed the entrance exam for the Polytechnic School of Copenhagen.

He soon became an instructor at the Polytechnic School, then in 1854 a Professor of Mathematics at the Denmark Naval Academy.

He also began a study of Arabic, Chinese and other oriental languages, and used his knowledge to study old astronomic records, including those of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣūfī (whose Book of Fixed Stars he translated into French in 1874) and Chinese records of eclipses.

At the University of Copenhagen he became director of the observatory, serving in that capacity up until his death, following a lengthy illness.