September 7th, 2010 the Nikolaev Astronomical Observatory met with a group of honorable representatives of large Knorre families who had arrived from Germany. Probably not since the first director Karl Knorre (1801-1883) could our observatory remember that within the walls were so many people who proudly wear the name Knorre at the same time.

In fact, there were 16 children in Karl Knorre's family (unfortunately, some of them died in early childhood). Nevertheless the delegation included 16 people. Moreover, two of them were complete namesakes of their famous forefather, Karl Friedrich Knorre. They all live in different areas of Germany and are all direct descendants of Alexander (1836-1919), second son of Karl Knorre.
It was easy to see that this family regards with great respect and reverence the family traditions associated with the memory of their great forefather, the astronomer. They even translated the book about Karl Knorre, which was written in Nikolaev Observatory, into the German language for their own use. The idea to visit Nikolayev was in Dr. Erik
von Knorre's mind since the Soviet Union. In those days he was a sales representative from Germany and visited our country more than once. So after a many years, he managed to make his dream comes true. He headed a delegation of three generations of Knorre family descendants in order to know better the sacred sites of their relative. The delegation consisted of relatives and cousins, children and grandchildren Eric von Knorre, representatives of various professions (doctors, lawyers, commercial and social workers, etc.).
The visit to Nikolaev Observatory began with a solemn meeting of the Academic Council including the representatives from the cultural community in Nikolaev. Director of Nikolaev Observatory Gennady Pinigin, presented the certificate of assignment of a minor planet number 14339 named "Knorre".
At the beginning of 2010, the asteroid, which was discovered in April 1983 by the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory by astronomer Lyudmila Ivanovna Chernykh, was named after the dynasty of Knorre astronomers by the decision of International Astronomical Union according the offer of discoverer. Guests were also pleasantly surprised and pleased to learn that Nikolaev Observatory is included in the Tentative List of World Heritage Convention (UNESCO) from Ukraine. The research scientist Anatoliy Ivantsov gave a lecture on history and scientific works of our observatory in English. After that our guests had the opportunity to get acquainted with the museum and the scientific platform of the observatory.
With great interest, the delegation viewed the main building hall, because for nearly half a century Karl Knorre worked and lived in this place. The meeting continued till late in the evening. Unfortunately, the weather let us down and the guests did not manage to see stars in the telescope. Also we could not show the rotunda and the basement, although they were quite functionally important in Karl Knorre times. The observatory book of honorable guests says that our guests from Germany were pleased by our meeting, We remind that this is the second visit to Nikolaev Observatory of heirs of Karl Knorre.
Exactly three years ago, on the same days in September, guests from France Suzanne
Eraliev and Serge Prat visited our Observatory. Their grandmother was the daughter of
his first son - Fyodor Karlovich Knorre (1831-1911). Over the past five years as a result of an exciting and fruitful cooperation with them two books were born - translated into French biobibliographic collector “Karl Knorre - the first astronomer at the Black Sea Fleet "(2007) and the book "The dynasty of Knorre astronomers” (2009). And very soon the update English version of this book will also be published.