Adolph Christian Wilhelm Schur, RAS Associate[1] (15 April 1846 – 1 July 1901) was a German astronomer and professor of astronomy at the University of Göttingen.

That summer, he enrolled at the University of Kiel, where he studied mathematics and astronomy under Georg Daniel Eduard Weyer, physics under Gustav Karsten, and philosophy under Friedrich Harms.

While at the University of Berlin, Schur briefly worked with von Auwers on understanding observations made by English astronomer James Bradley.

Under the observatory's director, Friedrich Winnecke, Schur assisted in preparatory work for the expedition and joined the crew when they embarked for Auckland Island in July 1874.

[3] In contrast to his predecessor, Wilhelm Klinkerfues, Schur was very successful in modernizing the inadequate equipment of the observatory, acquiring a new, large Repsold heliometer in 1888.

[3] His grandfather on his father's side was the child of Johann Carl Andreas Schur, a Berlin pharmacist who moved to Altona in 1796 and founded a soap factory.

In the three years leading to Schur's death, Brendel knew him as an extremely conscientious and lovable colleague, saying:[3] …waren Schur’s hervorragendste Charaktereigenschaften ein eiserner Fleiss und eine gänzliche Hingabe an die von ihm unternommenen Arbeiten; was er sich einmal vorgenommen hatte, führte er mit unermüdlicher Pflichttreue aus.

Der Unterzeichnete erinnert sich lebhaft, wie schwer es zuweilen war, ihn von seinem Arbeitstisch zu einem Spaziergange loszureissen, dessen er doch zu seiner Erholung dringend bedurfte, namentlich in der Zeit, wo seine Gesundheit schon etwas angegriffen war.

Wer Gelegenheit hatte, ihn nahe genug kennen zu lernen, der konnte sich überzeugen, dass unter seinem stillen Aeusseren eine seltene Herzensgüte verborgen war.

Anyone who had the opportunity to get to know him close enough could convince himself that a rare kindness of heart was hidden beneath his silent appearance.Schur, like Wilhelm Klinkerfues, suffered due to the division of the Göttingen Observatory into theoretical and practical wings, which caused needless conflict and only ended after 1897.

In the obituary of Ernst Schering, who was often on the opposing side of the divide, Schur wrote the following:[7] Ungeachtet mancher durch die Zweitheilung der Sternwarte hervorgerufenen Schwierigkeiten war das Zusammenleben des Verstorbenen und des Unterzeichneten während eines Zeitraumes von mehr als elf Jahren ein durchaus freundschaftliches.

Despite some difficulties caused by the division of the observatory, the coexistence of the deceased and undersigned over a period of more than eleven years was quite friendly.An extensive list of Schur's publications can be found on the Astrophysics Data System.