Rudolf König

was an Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n merchant, amateur astronomer

Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...

 and selenographer

Selenography

Selenography is the study of the surface and physical features of the Moon. Historically, the principal concern of selenographists was the mapping and naming of the lunar maria, craters, mountain ranges, and other various features...

.

He was born in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 and received his technical education in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

. After graduation he went into his father's business.
As he had an interest in astronomy, in 1906 he built a private observatory in Vienna, on the top of his house, 12 Kuppelwiesergasse.

From this observatory, with a double Zeiss astrograph, he carried out many observations of the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

.

In 1912 he published a volume of illustrations of the Moon made by his deceased friend Johann Krieger

Johann Nepomuk Krieger

Johann Nepomuk Krieger was a draftsman and selenographer. The crater Krieger on the Moon is named in his honor.Krieger was born in Bavaria, the son of a master brewer. At an early age he gained an interest in astronomy. He only received school education up to the age of 15, when he departed...

.

The crater König

König (crater)

König is a lunar crater on the southwest Mare Nubium. It lies to the southwest of the prominent crater Bullialdus, and northwest of the flooded Kies. The rim of König is somewhat polygonal in outline, with a small outward bulge to the south and only a slight outer rampart. The crater interior is...

 on the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

 is named after him.
In 1929, after the death of Rudolf König, his telescope was bought by the Stefanik Observatory in Prague and placed under the main dome, where it is still in use.