Leopold Courvoisier

{{short description|Swiss astronomer}}

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Leopold Courvoisier (1873–1955) was a Swiss astronomer. He was born in Riehen, Switzerland, near Basel.[http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1957AN....284...47R/0000047.000.html Astronomische Nachrichten, volume 284, p.47] He was the chief observer at the observatory in Babelsberg (near Berlin) from 1905 to 1938.

Besides many contributions to observational astronomy, he attempted to detect the absolute motion of the Solar System through the ether, using a variety of methods, both astronomical and experimental.Martins, Roberto de Andrade. [http://www.dioi.org/vols/wh0.pdf Searching for the Ether: Leopold Courvoiser’s Attempts to Measure the Absolute Velocity of the Solar System]. Dio, 17, pp. 3-33, 2011. However, his work was largely ignored by the scientific community.