Alfred Schmitt (30 November 1907 – 2 April 1973) was a French

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

. Schmitt worked at

Algiers Observatory The Algiers Observatory was built in the late 19th century in the Algiers suburb of Bouzaréah, Algeria, North Africa. It participated in the Astrographic Catalogue project, taking the zone between -2 and +4 degrees to expose 1,260 plates between ...

in the 1930s and 1940s and at the Royal Observatory in

Uccle Uccle () or Ukkel () is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. In common with all of Brussels' municipalities, it is legally bilingual (French–Dutch). It is generally considered an affluent area of the city a ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

in the 1950s. From 1955 to 1958 he was also director of the Quito Observatory in Ecuador. He extensively studied minor planets and comets and is credited with having discovered four

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

Personal life

Between 1940 and 1948 he married his colleague, astronomer

Odette Bancilhon Odette Bancilhon (22 September 1908 – 1998) was a French astronomer. She is best known for her work during the 1930s and 1940s at the Algiers Observatory, in Algeria, North Africa, where she discovered 1333 Cevenola, a stony Eunomian asteroid f ...

and thereafter she signed her work as ''O. Schmitt-Bancilhon''.

Signature

Schmitt's publications are all signed A. Schmitt, following the practice of his profession at that time.

Boyer

In 1932, Schmitt discovered an asteroid while working at the Algiers Observatory and named it in honor of his colleague, Louis Boyer – asteroid

1215 Boyer 1215 Boyer, provisional designation , is a stony Eunomian asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 20 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by astronomer Alfred Schmitt in 1932, who named it after French astronomer ...

. 20 years later, Boyer named 1617 Alschmitt in Schmitt's honor.

References

External links

Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
Google books 20th-century French astronomers Discoverers of asteroids 1907 births 1973 deaths French people in French Algeria French expatriates in Belgium {{france-astronomer-stub