Auguste Charlois
Auguste Honoré Pierre Charlois (born November 26, 1864 in La Cadière-d'Azur , † March 26, 1910 ) was a French astronomer .
While working at the Nice Observatory , Charlois discovered 99 asteroids . The first was (267) Tirza , which he found in 1887 . He also photographed the asteroid (433) Eros during the night it was discovered by Gustav Witt . Witt was the first to announce his find, so that the discovery of Eros was awarded to him.
Charlois began his search for the asteroids during the era of visual celestial observations on the telescope . The German astronomer Max Wolf had fundamentally improved the photographic processes for use in astronomy around 1891 and also used them to discover asteroids. Compared to stars , asteroids have a large intrinsic movement and appear as traces of lines on long-exposure images of the sky. Charlois took over the photographic process, and in the following years he and Wolf discovered far more asteroids than would have been possible through visual observation.
Charlois was murdered at the age of 46 by his former brother-in-law (his first wife's brother), who couldn't get over the fact that Charlois was remarrying. The killer was sentenced to life in forced labor in New Caledonia .
Charlois received the Jules Janssen Prize in 1899 . The asteroid (1510) Charlois was named after him in his honor .
Web links
- NN: Necrology (Auguste Charlois). Bulletin Astronomique, Series I, vol. 27 (1910), p. 193 (obituary, French)
See also
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Charlois, Auguste |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Charlois, Auguste Honoré Pierre (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French astronomer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 26, 1864 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | La Cadière-d'Azur |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 26, 1910 |
| Place of death | Nice |