Wilhelm Beer

Wilhelm Wolff Beer (4 January 1797 – 27 March 1850) was a banker and astronomer from Berlin, Prussia, and the brother of Giacomo Meyerbeer.

He built a private observatory with a 9.5 cm refractor in Tiergarten, Berlin.

Together with Johann Heinrich Mädler he produced the first exact map of the Moon (entitled Mappa Selenographica) in 1834–1836, and in 1837 published a description of the Moon (Der Mond nach seinen kosmischen und individuellen Verhältnissen).

In 1830, Beer and Mädler created the first globe of the planet Mars.

In addition to his hobby of astronomy, he helped with the establishment of a railway system in Prussia, and promoted the Jewish community in Berlin.