Félix Savary, who was born on 4 October 1797 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and died on 15 July 1841 in Estagel, 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 ...

.Felix Savary
biography, J. J. O'Connor and E. F. Robertson, MacTutor. Accessed on line September 4, 2008. He studied at the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

, where he was later a professor of

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

. He was a librarian at the Bureau des Longitudes between 1823 and 1829, and was elected to the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...

on 24 December 1832. In his works ''Mémoire sur les orbites des étoiles doubles'' and ''Sur la détermination des orbites que décrivent autour de leur centre de gravité deux étoiles très rapprochées l'une de l'autre'', published in 1827, he was the first to use observations of a visual

binary star A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...

to calculate the orbit of one star about the other. He applied his method to the star

ξ Ursae Majoris Xi Ursae Majoris is a star system in the constellation of Ursa Major. It has the traditional name Alula Australis; ''Xi Ursae Majoris'' is the Bayer designation, which is Latinised from ξ Ursae Majoris and abbreviated Xi&nbs ...

. He worked with Ampère, publishing in 1823 the work ''Mémoire sur l'application du calcul aux phénomènes électro-dynamiques''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Savary, Felix 19th-century French astronomers 1797 births 1841 deaths Members of the French Academy of Sciences

See also

References