Chassapis Constantin (PhD)
Position: Researcher
PhD: 1967, Dept. of Physics, University of Athens, Greece
Supervisor(s): Leonidas Karapiperis
Biography:
C. Chassapis (b. 4/17 Sept. 1914 Veroia, Greece – d. 10 July 1972, Athens, Greece). For many years he worked as school teacher at a small mountainous village and later at Papastratos School in the town of Agrinion, but his passion was astronomy. Equipped with his small telescope, he became an excellent observer of variable stars. After the Second World War his high quality observations raised Campbell’s interest, who would like to know the status of this excellent observer. So, in 1946 Chassapis having been recognized as amateur astronomer he succeeded his transfer to Athens and especially his position as astronomer at Penteli Observatory. Later he finished his studies in the Department of Mathematics at Athens University. He was widely appreciated for his public lectures on astronomical topics as well as for his popular articles in daily and periodical press and encyclopaidias. His first book on astronomy “The Life on planet Mars” has been published in 1935 and his voluminous “Contemporary popular astronomy” (p. 835) in 1957; a summary of the latter was the new book of “Cosmography” for high schools (join work with D. Kotsakis). His major contributions were “Greek astronomy in the 2nd millennium B.C. according to Orphic hymns” (PhD Thesis at Athens University, 1967), “The Star of Bethlehem” (1970), continued in the (till now) unpublished “Determination of the Date of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection” (1971). After his sudden death in 1972, his student Maria Papathanassiou has published long articles-summaries of his work. During this last years he collaborated with Eugenides Foundation lecturing either in the Planetarium or the great Amphitheatre. From: http://www.academy.edu.gr/index.php/el/epistim-epitheoriseis/stoa-epistimon/thematikoi-tomoi/2013-08-24-17-38-00
C. Chassapis (b. 4/17 Sept. 1914 Veroia, Greece – d. 10 July 1972, Athens, Greece). For many years he worked as school teacher at a small mountainous village and later at Papastratos School in the town of Agrinion, but his passion was astronomy. Equipped with his small telescope, he became an excellent observer of variable stars. After the Second World War his high quality observations raised Campbell’s interest, who would like to know the status of this excellent observer. So, in 1946 Chassapis having been recognized as amateur astronomer he succeeded his transfer to Athens and especially his position as astronomer at Penteli Observatory. Later he finished his studies in the Department of Mathematics at Athens University. He was widely appreciated for his public lectures on astronomical topics as well as for his popular articles in daily and periodical press and encyclopaidias. His first book on astronomy “The Life on planet Mars” has been published in 1935 and his voluminous “Contemporary popular astronomy” (p. 835) in 1957; a summary of the latter was the new book of “Cosmography” for high schools (join work with D. Kotsakis). His major contributions were “Greek astronomy in the 2nd millennium B.C. according to Orphic hymns” (PhD Thesis at Athens University, 1967), “The Star of Bethlehem” (1970), continued in the (till now) unpublished “Determination of the Date of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection” (1971). After his sudden death in 1972, his student Maria Papathanassiou has published long articles-summaries of his work. During this last years he collaborated with Eugenides Foundation lecturing either in the Planetarium or the great Amphitheatre. From: http://www.academy.edu.gr/index.php/el/epistim-epitheoriseis/stoa-epistimon/thematikoi-tomoi/2013-08-24-17-38-00