Francesco Carlini

{{Short description|Italian astronomer (1783–1862)}}

File:Francesco Carlini.jpg

Francesco Carlini (January 7, 1783 – August 29, 1862) was an Italian astronomer. Born in Milan, he became director of the Brera Astronomical Observatory there in 1832.{{cite book |title=The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers |last=Hockey |first=Thomas |date=2009 |publisher=Springer Publishing |isbn=978-0-387-31022-0 |access-date=August 22, 2012 |url=http://www.springerreference.com/docs/html/chapterdbid/59747.html}} He published Nuove tavole de moti apparenti del sole in 1832. In 1810, he had already published Esposizione di un nuovo metodo di construire le tavole astronomiche applicato alle tavole del sole. Together with Giovanni Antonio Amedeo Plana, he participated in a geodetic project in Austria and Italy. During this trip in 1821 he took pendulum measurements on top of Mount Cenis, Italy, from which he calculated one of the first estimates of the density and mass of the Earth.{{cite book

| last = Poynting

| first = John Henry

| title = The Mean Density of the Earth

| publisher = Charles Griffin

| date = 1894

| location = London

| pages = [https://archive.org/details/meandensityeart00poyngoog/page/n44 22]–24

| url = https://archive.org/details/meandensityeart00poyngoog

}} He died in Milan.

The crater Carlini on the Moon is named after him.