a Dutch astronomer. He was the director of the Utrecht Observatory from 1875 until 1898, when he retired. Born in Amsterdam, as the son of the poet, teacher and philologist Anthonie Oudemans Sr., he entered Leiden University when he was just 16 as a student of the noted astronomer Frederik Kaiser. He became a high school teacher in Leiden when he was just 19 (1846). The next six years he worked on his dissertation on the determination of the latitude of Leiden. Next he studied asteroids and variable stars, meanwhile hoping for an academic appointment. In 1855 he became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
