Luigi Carnera

Who was Luigi Carnera?

Luigi Carnera was an Italian astronomer.

In his early career he worked as Max Wolf's assistant at Heidelberg, Germany and discovered a number of asteroids. He worked in Germany, Italy and Argentina before returning to Italy for good in 1908.

He was director of Trieste Observatory starting in 1919; Trieste had just been annexed to Italy following World War I. He then became director of Capodimonte Observatory in Naples starting in 1932 and until his retirement in 1950. In 1943 during World War II, the observatory was temporarily occupied by American and British troops in order to install a radar station.