Alexander Deutsch

{{Short description|Soviet astronomer}}

{{Refimprove|date=May 2009}}

Alexander Nikolaevich Deutsch (Aleksandr Nikolaevič Dejč; {{langx|ru|Александр Николаевич Дейч}}; December 31, 1899 – 22 November 1986{{Cite journal |last=Gaina |first=Alexei B.| title=The Total Eclipse 1999 | bibcode=1999NM......1.....G | journal=Nezavisimaya Moldova |volume=1| date= 22 January 1999 }}) was a Soviet astronomer who worked at Pulkovo Observatory.

Deutsch was born in the night from December 31, 1899, to January 1, 1900, in the Bessarabian town of Reni in a family of Volga German{{Cite web |url=http://old-saratov.ru/foto.php?id=999 |title=Список офицеров из Саратовской губернии |access-date=2011-07-16 |archive-date=2016-03-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305170952/http://old-saratov.ru/foto.php?id=999 }} (on his father's side), Greek and Romanian (on his mother's side) descent.[https://dovatur.ru/?page_id=83николай+осипович+дейч&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com The Dovatur Family] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316181240/https://dovatur.ru/?page_id=83 |date=March 16, 2016 }} When he was a small child, the family moved to Ryazan and then to Saratov. He was graduated from the Sankt Petersburg University (Russia). He was an adjoint director of the Pulkovo Observatory prior World War II and the director of the Pulkovo Observatory during the blockade of Leningrad. Subsequently, he was the head of the astrometry section of the Pulkovo Observatory and the founder of the astrometric school of that observatory.

He was active 1935–1985 as A. N. Deutsch (A. Deutsch published starting in 1926 and could be the same person). He discovered one asteroid (the Minor Planet Center lists him as A. Deutsch).

His main scientific contributions refer to stars' proper motions in selected Kapteyn surfaces, astrophotography of galaxies and stars, brown dwarfs, astronomical calculations of the coordinates of warships, eclipses and asteroids photography. A number of papers were signed as Deich. Deutsch (Deich) was а president of the IAU Astrometry commission. The asteroid Reni, discovered by L. S. Chernyh, was named in honor of A. N. Deutsch (Deich).