Maximilian Hell or Maximilian Höll (May 15 1720 – April 14 1792) was an astronomer, and also a Jesuit and an ordained priest. In Hungary he is known as Hell Miksa Rudolf.

He was born in Banska Stiavnica in what is today Slovakia and his nationality was Slovak. He was director of the Vienna Observatory starting in 1755. He published the astronomical tables Ephemerides astronomicae ad meridianum Vindobonemsem (Ephemerides for the meridian of Vienna). He went to Vardø in the far north of Norway (then part of Denmark) to observe the 1769 transit of Venus.

There was some controversy about his observations of the transit of Venus because he stayed in Norway for eight months, collecting non-astronomical scientific data about the arctic regions for a planned encyclopedia (which never appeared, in part due to the suppression of the Jesuit order). Thus the publication of his results was delayed, and some (notably Joseph Johann Littrow) even accused him posthumously of falsifying his results. However a century after his death Simon Newcomb carefully studied his notebooks and exonerated him.

Besides astronomy, he also had an interest in magnet therapy (the alleged healing power of magnets) although it was Franz Anton Mesmer who went further with this and got most of the credit.

Hell crater on the Moon is named after him.

External links

• http://www.plicht.de/chris/34hell.htm