Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters (September 19, 1813 – July 18, 1890) was a German-American astronomer, and one of the first to find asteroids.

He was born in Schleswig-Holstein, then part of Denmark but later part of Germany, and later studied under Carl Friedrich Gauss. He spoke many languages and spent time in Italy and Ottoman Turkey before going to the United States in 1854.

Working at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York (near Utica), he was a good finder of asteroids, finding 48 of them, beginning with 72 Feronia in 1861 and ending with 287 Nephthys in 1889.

He was involved in litigation in 1889 with his old assistant Charles A. Borst, and the "Great Star-Catalog Case" Peters v. Borst went before the Supreme Court of New York. The judge sided with Peters, but many astronomers and newspapers sided with Borst. Peters died not long after the trial end. After his death, the judgement was ultimately reversed on appeal and a new trial was ordered, but it never took place.

Besides asteroids, he co-found the Periodic comet 80P/Peters-Hartley, and also found different nebulae and galaxies.

• Biography