The German-born Russian astronomer and geodesist Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve (1793-1864) is noted for his observations of double stars and for the measurement of the meridional arc from the north coast of Norway to Ismail on the Danube.

On April 15, 1793, F. G. W. von Struve was born in Altona, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. After escaping in 1808 from a French press gang seeking recruits for Napoleon's army, he entered the University of Dorpat (now Tartu in Estonia). His brother, Karl, taught philology there, and the younger Struve decided to follow his footsteps; he completed his studies and received a degree in philology by December 1810.

Under the influence of the physicist Georg Friedrich Parrot, Struve developed an interest in the exact sciences, especially astronomy. In 1812 he began his first astronomical observations at Dorpat Observatory, and later he was appointed extraordinary professor of mathematics and astronomy as...