Aernout De Sitter

Vocation

Family

Dutch astronomer. He was the son of Willem de Sitter (6 May 1872, Sneek - 20 November 1934 at 11:45 PM in Leiden) and Eleonore Suermondt (16 November 1870, Surabaya - 20 November 1952 at 2h30 PM, Leiden). He studied astronomy in leiden. He graduated on 29 June 1936 in Leiden with "Fotovisueele fotometrie van sterren tot 8.0 magnituden benoorden +80◦ declinatie" under E. Hertzsprung. With Hertzsprung he went in 1938 to South Africa to do observations on the southern sky, like his father did. In 1939, he became the director of the Bosscha Observatory in Lembang, Indonesia. Here he studied the Messier 4 globular cluster. On 7 July 1943 he was captured in Bandung by the Japanese in Java and brought to the No.1 Branch Camp of Java POW Camp 27299 in Bandung. On 7 November 1943 at 18:25 he was transferred to s No.2 Branch Camp of Malay POW Camp in Palembang, Sumatra. He fell ill on 26 August 1944 and was brought to the POW Hospital. He died on 15 September 1944 of beri-beri on 15 September 1944 and was buried the same day in Palembang .