Education
He was graduated from the Saint St. Petersburg School of Law in 1847, then served in the 1st and 5th departments of the Senate. In 1870 he completed the observation of 50 comets and 70 asteroids. Turning to star clusters, in 1883 he completed a catalog of more than 400 nebulae.
Career
In 1853 he left government service and devoted himself to studying astronomy. In 1875, Engelhardt settled in Dresden and built himself an observatory with his own money, where he worked alone without assistants until 1897. His main work was researching comets, asteroids, nebulae, and star clusters.
Beginning in 1886, he observed 829 stars in Bradley"s directory to determine if they had companion stars.
The university built an observatory to house the equipment, which was opened in 1901 and named for Engelhardt from 1903 until 1931. Until the end of his life, Engelhardt took an active part in the construction and organization of the new observatory, and in his will gave Kazan University all his money and property, to be used for the development and maintenance of the observatory.
Foreign most of his life, Engelhardt took an active interest in Russian history, gathering materials and donating them to Russian collections. When Glinka died in Berlin in 1857, Engelhardt arranged the transfer of his remains home to Tikhvin.
Engelhardt also sent Glinka"s collection of manuscripts to Saint St. Petersburg, where the Glinka Public Library was founded, and published the scores of Glinka"s operas and symphonic works.
In the late 1890s, moving away from astronomical research, Engelhardt began a collection of material on Suvorov"s campaign in Switzerland, which he donated to the Suvorov Museum in Saint St. Petersburg in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 1812 war. Engelhardt"s efforts made a significant contribution to perpetuating the memory of the Russian campaign in Switzerland. Engelhardt"s correspondence with leading cultural figures (Glinka, Stasov, Franz Liszt, G Bulow) is considered of historical value.
By decision of the XIV Congress of the International Astronomical Union, the Moon crater Engel"gardt was named in Engelhardt"s honor.
Membership
Russian Academy of Sciences]
Engelhardt was member of the wealthy and famous Engelhardt family. Engelhardt was awarded an honorary doctorate by Kazan University in 1889, and in 1890 he was made a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.