Fyodor Bredikhin

     Fyodor Aleksandrovich Bredikhin, a russian astronomer, was born on December 8, 1831 and died May 14, 1904. His surname is sometimes written as Bredichin in literature, and non-Russian sources sometimes call him Theodor. In 1857, he joined the observatory in Moscow University and became its director in 1873. In 1890 he became the director of Pulkovo Observatory, until 1894, and in the same year became a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences where we studied mainly meteors, meteor showers and the theory of comet tails. The asteroid 786 Bredichina and the crater Bredikhin, on the Moon, are named after him. Bredikhin also took active part in launching systematic observations of our star's chromosphere with protuberance microscopes; taking pictures of sunspots and flares; studying planetary stars and variable nebulas.