He was born in Frankfurt, the son of a Jewish merchant. He went to Paris and studied art and painted a number of paintings before turning his attention to astronomy.
In April 1861 he announced the discovery of a ninth moon of Saturn between Titan and Hyperion, which he named "Chiron". However, he was mistaken: this moon did not exist. Today, "Chiron" is the name of an entirely different object, the unusual asteroid/comet2060 Chiron.
He is credited with being the first to record and observe (in 1820) the shadow bands that appear in the minutes just before a total solar eclipse.
