List of French astronomers
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The following are list of 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 ...
s, astrophysicists and other notable French people who have made contributions to the field 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 ...
. They may have won major prizes or awards, developed or invented widely used techniques or technologies within astronomy, or are directors of major observatories or heads of space-based telescope projects.


The list

The following is a list of notable French astronomers.


A

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Abba Mari ben Eligdor Abba Mari ben Eligdor (also called Sen (or Senior) Astruc de Noves) was a distinguished Talmudist, an eminent philosopher, a member of the Astruc family and an able physicist and astronomer who flourished in the fourteenth century in Salon-de-Pro ...
* Jacques d'Allonville *
Marie Henri Andoyer Marie Henri Andoyer (October 1, 1862 in Paris – June 12, 1929) was a French astronomer and mathematician. Biography Andoyer was elected member of the French Académie des sciences on June 30, 1919 in the astronomy section. He was member of the B ...
* Voituret Anthelme *
Pierre Antonini Pierre Antonini is a retired French mathematics professor and amateur astronomer who has discovered several minor planets and two supernovae at his private Observatoire de Bédoin (Bedoin Observatory; observatory code: 132) located at Bédoi ...
*
François Arago Dominique François Jean Arago ( ca, Domènec Francesc Joan Aragó), known simply as François Arago (; Catalan: ''Francesc Aragó'', ; 26 February 17862 October 1853), was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of t ...
* Henri Arnaut de Zwolle *
Jean Audouze Jean Audouze () is a French astrophysicist. He is a research director at CNRS and teaches at the Paris Institute of Political Science "Sciences Po". From 1993 to 1996 he was president of the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in La Villette, ...
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Adrien Auzout Adrien Auzout ronounced in French somewhat like o-zoo(28 January 1622 – 23 May 1691) was a French astronomer. He was born in Rouen, France, the eldest child of a clerk in the court of Rouen. His educational background is unknown, although ...


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Benjamin Baillaud Édouard Benjamin Baillaud (14 February 1848 – 8 July 1934) was a French astronomer. Biography Born in Chalon-sur-Saône, Baillaud studied at the École Normale Supérieure (1866-1869) and the University of Paris. He worked as an assi ...
* Jules Baillaud *
Jean Sylvain Bailly Jean Sylvain Bailly (; 15 September 1736 – 12 November 1793) was a French astronomer, mathematician, freemason, and political leader of the early part of the French Revolution. He presided over the Tennis Court Oath, served as the mayor of Par ...
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Paul Baize Paul Achille‐Ariel Baize (11 March 1901 – 6 October 1995) was a French pediatrician and amateur astronomer specialising in double star observations. He started with his observations of double stars in 1925. Between 1933 and 1971 he was allow ...
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Fernand Baldet Fernand Baldet (16 March 1885 – 8 November 1964) was a French astronomer. He worked with Count Aymar de la Baume Pluvinel observing Mars from the newly built observatory on Pic du Midi in 1909. The resulting photographs, taken with the 0 ...
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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 ...
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Daniel Barbier Daniel Barbier (10 December 1907 – 1 April 1965) was a French astronomer born in Lyon. Between 1930 and 1965 he published nearly 100 scientific papers on astronomy. Among his works were studies of stellar atmospheres and lunar occultations and e ...
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Joseph-Émile Barbier Joseph-Émile Barbier (1839–1889) was a French astronomer and mathematician, known for Barbier's theorem on the perimeter of curves of constant width. Barbier was born on 18 March 1839 in Saint-Hilaire-Cottes, Pas-de-Calais, in the north of Fr ...
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Aurélien Barrau Aurélien Barrau (born 19 May 1973, in Neuilly-sur-Seine) is a French physicist and philosopher, specialized in astroparticle physics, black holes and cosmology. He is the director of the Grenoble Center for Theoretical Physics, works in the ...
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Maria A. Barucci Maria Antonella Barucci is an Italian astronomer at the Paris Observatory, Observatory-Meudon, Paris. She is credited by the Minor Planet Center with a total of 3 minor planet discoveries she made in 1984 and 1985. Most notably is her joint disco ...
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Aymar de la Baume Pluvinel Count Aymar Eugène de la Baume Pluvinel (6 November 1860 – 18 July 1938) was a French astronomer and professor in the ''Grandes écoles SupOptique'' (''École supérieure d'optique''). He belonged to an old noble family, whose most famous desc ...
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Michel Benoist Michel Benoist (, 8 October 1715 in Dijon, France – 23 October 1774 in Beijing, China) was a Jesuit scientist who served for thirty years in the court of the Qianlong Emperor (1735 - 1796) during the Qing Dynasty, known for his architectural ...
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Bernard of Verdun Little is known of the life of Bernard of Verdun, except that he was a Franciscan friar who may have been born in Verdun and lived in the second half of the thirteenth century. His most significant work was the Treatise on the Whole of Astronomy (' ...
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Guillaume Bigourdan Camille Guillaume Bigourdan (; 6 April 1851 – 28 February 1932) was a French astronomer. Personal life Bigourdan was born at Sistels, Tarn-et-Garonne to Pierre Bigourdan and Jeanne Carrière. When his teachers and local curate recognised ...
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Immanuel Bonfils Immanuel ben Jacob Bonfils (c. 1300 – 1377) was a French-Jewish mathematician and astronomer in medieval times who flourished from 1340 to 1377, a rabbi who was a pioneer of exponential calculus and is credited with inventing the system of decimal ...
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Jean-Marc Bonnet-Bidaud Jean-Marc Bonnet-Bidaud (born 1950) is a French astrophysicist at the Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA). He is a specialist in high-energy astrophysics and in the study of highly condensed stars in the galaxy (white dwarf ...
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Alphonse Borrelly Alphonse Louis Nicolas Borrelly (December 8, 1842 – February 28, 1926) was a French astronomer. He joined the Marseille Observatory in 1864. In the course of his career, he discovered a number of asteroids and comets, including the periodic c ...
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Jean Bosler Jean Bosler (24 March 1878, Angers – 25 September 1973, Marseille) was a French astronomer and author of several books. Recruited by Deslandres as an astronomer at l’observatoire de Paris, Bosler discovered in 1908 in the spectrum of Comet M ...
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Joseph Bossert Joseph François Bossert (30 November 1851 – 21 June 1906) was a French astronomer. Bossert began study at age fifteen at the Paris Observatory. He calculated the orbits of asteroids and comets. He was the main author of three star catalogues ...
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François Bouchet François R. Bouchet is a French astronomer specializing in physical cosmology, including formation of large scale structures and cosmic background radiation. He serves as the Institut d'astrophysique de Paris, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris li ...
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Alexis Bouvard Alexis Bouvard (, 27 June 1767 – 7 June 1843) was a French astronomer. He is particularly noted for his careful observations of the irregularities in the motion of Uranus and his hypothesis of the existence of an eighth planet in the Solar ...
* Louis Boyer * P. Briault *
Ismaël Bullialdus Ismaël Boulliau (; Latin: Ismaël Bullialdus; 28 September 1605 – 25 November 1694) was a 17th-century French astronomer and mathematician who was also interested in history, theology, classical studies, and philology. He was an active m ...
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Johann Karl Burckhardt Johann Karl Burckhardt (30 April 1773 – 22 June 1825) was a German-born astronomer and mathematician. He later became a naturalized French citizen and became known as Jean Charles Burckhardt. He is remembered in particular for his work in funda ...


C

* Michel Cassé *
César-François Cassini de Thury César-François Cassini de Thury (17 June 1714 – 4 September 1784), also called Cassini III or Cassini de Thury, was a French astronomer and cartographer. Biography Cassini de Thury was born in Thury-sous-Clermont, in the Oise departme ...
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Dominique, comte de Cassini Jean-Dominique, comte de Cassini (30 June 174818 October 1845) was a French astronomer, son of César-François Cassini de Thury and great-grandson of Giovanni Domenico Cassini. Cassini was born at the Paris Observatory. He succeeded his fath ...
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Jacques Cassini Jacques Cassini (18 February 1677 – 16 April 1756) was a French astronomer, son of the famous Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini. Cassini was born at the Paris Observatory. Admitted at the age of seventeen to membership of the French ...
* Roger Cayrel *
Catherine Cesarsky Catherine Jeanne Cesarsky (born Catherine Jeanne Gattegno on 24 February 1943) is an Argentine and French astronomer, known for her successful research activities in several central areas of modern astrophysics. She was formerly president of the ...
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Joseph Bernard de Chabert Joseph-Bernard de Chabert-Cogolin (28 February 1724, in Toulon – 2 December 1805) was a French Navy officer. He served in the War of American Independence. Biography Cillart was born to the family of Madeleine de Bernard and of Joseph-Franç ...
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Jean Chacornac Jean Chacornac (21 June 1823 – 23 September 1873) was a French astronomer and discoverer of a comet and several asteroids. He was born in Lyon and died in Saint-Jean-en-Royans, southeastern France. Working in Marseille and Paris, he discove ...
* Merieme Chadid *
Daniel Chalonge Daniel Chalonge (January 21, 1895 – November 28, 1977) was a French astronomer and astrophysicist. He was born in Grenoble and studied in Paris under Charles Fabry. Chalonge worked as an astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris, the Observato ...
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Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche (23 March 1722 – 1 August 1769) was a French astronomer, best known for his observations of the transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769. Early life Little is known of Chappe's early life. He was born into a distingu ...
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Auguste Charlois Auguste Honoré Charlois (November 26, 1864 – March 26, 1910) was a French astronomer who discovered 99 asteroids while working at the Nice Observatory in southeastern France. Asteroid Discovery His first discovery was the asteroid 267 Tirz ...
* Sébastien Charnoz *
Jean Chazy Jean François Chazy (15 August 1882, Villefranche-sur-Saône – 9 March 1955, Paris) was a French mathematician and astronomer. Life Chazy was the son of a small provincial manufacturer and studied mathematics at the École Normale Supérie ...
* Olivier Chesneau *
Henri Chrétien Henri Jacques Chrétien (1 February 1879, Paris – 6 February 1956, Washington, D.C.) was a French astronomer and an inventor. Born in Paris, France, his most famous inventions are: - the anamorphic widescreen process, using an anamorphic len ...
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Jean-Pierre Christin Jean-Pierre Christin (31 May 1683 – 19 January 1755) was a French physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and musician. His proposal in 1743 to reverse the Celsius thermometer scale (from water boiling at 0 degrees and ice melting at 100 degre ...
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Alexis Clairaut Alexis Claude Clairaut (; 13 May 1713 – 17 May 1765) was a French mathematician, astronomer, and geophysicist. He was a prominent Newtonian whose work helped to establish the validity of the principles and results that Sir Isaac Newton had out ...
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Jérôme Eugène Coggia Jérôme Eugène Coggia (18 February 1849 – 15 January 1919) was a 19th-century French astronomer and discoverer of asteroids and comets, who was born in the Corsican town of Ajaccio. Working at the Marseille Observatory from 1866 to 1917, Cog ...
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Françoise Combes Françoise Combes (; born 12 August 1952) is a French astrophysicist at the Paris Observatory and a professor at the Collège de France where she has been the chair of Galaxies and cosmology since 2014. On 15 September 2017 the 'City of Succes ...
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Janine Connes Janine Connes (born c. 1934) is a female French astronomer whose research led to the establishment of the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy method, which was of major significance and laid the foundations of what was to grow into a significa ...
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Eugène Cosserat Eugène-Maurice-Pierre Cosserat (4 March 1866 – 31 May 1931) was a French mathematician and astronomer. Born in Amiens, he studied at the École Normale Supérieure from 1883 to 1888. He was on Science faculty of Toulouse University from ...
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Pablo Cottenot Pablo Cottenot was a 19th-century French astronomer and discoverer of a minor planet. He worked at Marseille Observatory, but according to Édouard Stephan, Cottenot's astronomy career was brief. He is credited by the Minor Planet Center with th ...
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André Couder André Couder (27 November 1897 – 16 January 1979) was a French optician and astronomer. Information From 1925, he worked in the optics laboratory of the Paris Observatory. Between 1952 and 1958 he was vice-president of the International Astro ...
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Fernand Courty Fernand Courty (11 June 1862 – 12 October 1921) was a French astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets. He joined Bordeaux Observatory when it was founded in 1880 by Georges Rayet Georges-Antoine-Pons Rayet (12 December 1839 – 14 ...


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Joseph Lepaute Dagelet Joseph Lepaute Dagelet (1751–1788) was a French astronomer, clockmaker and mathematician who accompanied Lapérouse on his scientific circumnavigation, in the course of which he perished in the final shipwreck of the expedition. Dagelet's astro ...
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Michel Ferdinand d'Albert d'Ailly Michel Ferdinand d'Albert d'Ailly (31 December 1714 – 23 September 1769), Duke of Picquigny and then Duke of Chaulnes from 1744, was a French astronomer, physicist and freemason. Early life Michel Ferdinand d'Albert d'Ailly was the younger son ...
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Marie-Charles Damoiseau Baron Marie-Charles-Théodore de Damoiseau de Montfort (6 April 1768 in Besançon – 6 August 1846) was a French astronomer. Damoiseau was originally an artillery officer but he left France in 1792 during the French Revolution. He worked as ...
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André-Louis Danjon André-Louis Danjon (; 6 April 1890 – 21 April 1967) was a French astronomer born in Caen to Louis Dominique Danjon and Marie Justine Binet. Danjon devised a method to measure "earthshine" on the Moon using a telescope in which a prism spl ...
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Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix (23 November 1718, in Toulouse – 18 January 1802, in Toulouse) was a French astronomer. He has usually been credited with the discovery of the Ring Nebula in 1779, but in fact he independently rediscovered it ...
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Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre Jean Baptiste Joseph, chevalier Delambre (19 September 1749 – 19 August 1822) was a French mathematician, astronomer, historian of astronomy, and geodesist. He was also director of the Paris Observatory, and author of well-known books on t ...
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Charles-Eugène Delaunay Charles-Eugène Delaunay (9 April 1816 – 5 August 1872) was a French astronomer and mathematician. His lunar motion studies were important in advancing both the theory of planetary motion and mathematics. Life Born in Lusigny-sur-Barse, F ...
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Joseph-Nicolas Delisle Joseph-Nicolas Delisle (; 4 April 1688 – 11 September 1768) was a French astronomer and cartographer. Life Joseph was born in Paris, one of the 11 sons of Claude Delisle (1644–1720). Like many of his brothers, among them Guillaume Delisle, ...
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Gabriel Delmotte Gabriel Delmotte (5 February 1876 – 10 March 1950) was a French astronomer, deputy and Mayor of Masnières in the Nord department in northern France. He was the author of ''Recherches sélénographiques et nouvelle théorie des cirques lunaires' ...
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Audrey C. Delsanti Audrey Delsanti (; born 27 August 1976) is a French astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. The Minor Planet Center credits her with the discovery of two numbered minor planets, but erroneously gives ...
* Jules Alfred Pierrot Deseilligny *
Henri-Alexandre Deslandres Henri Alexandre Deslandres (24 July 1853 – 15 January 1948) was a French astronomer, director of the Meudon and Paris Observatories, who carried out intensive studies on the behaviour of the atmosphere of the Sun. Biography Deslandres' und ...
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Audouin Dollfus Audouin Charles Dollfus (12 November 1924 – 1 October 2010) was a French astronomer and aeronaut, specialist in studies of the Solar System and discoverer of Janus, a moon of Saturn. Life and career Dollfus was born in Paris to aeronaut Charl ...
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Jean Dufay Jean Claude Barthélemy Dufay (July 18, 1896–November 6, 1967) was a French astronomer. During his career he studied nebulae, interstellar matter, the night sky and cometary physics. In 1925, while working in collaboration with Jean Cabanne ...
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Jeanne Dumée Jeanne Dumée (Paris 1660 - 1706) was a French astronomer and the author of an astronomical text, ''Entretiens sur l’opinion de Copernic touchant la mobilité de la terre'' (Conversations on Copernicus’ Opinion on the Movement of the Earth). ...
* Noël Duret


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Ernest Esclangon Ernest Benjamin Esclangon (17 March 1876 – 28 January 1954) was a French astronomer and mathematician. Born in Mison, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, in 1895 he started to study mathematics at the École Normale Supérieure, graduating in 1898. Look ...


F

* Louis Fabry *
Pierre Fatou Pierre Joseph Louis Fatou (28 February 1878 – 9 August 1929) was a French mathematician and astronomer. He is known for major contributions to several branches of analysis. The Fatou lemma and the Fatou set are named after him. Biography P ...
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Hervé Faye Hervé Auguste Étienne Albans Faye ( – ) was a French astronomer, born at Saint-Benoît-du-Sault (Indre) and educated at the École Polytechnique, which he left in 1834, before completing his course, to accept a position in the Paris Obse ...
* Charles Fehrenbach *
Louis Feuillée Louis Éconches Feuillée (sometimes spelled Feuillet) (1660, Mane, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence – 18 April 1732) was a French member of the Order of the Minims, explorer, astronomer, geographer, and botanist. Biography Feuillée was educated at th ...
* Agnès Fienga *
Oronce Finé Oronce Finé (or Fine; Latin: ''Orontius Finnaeus'' or ''Finaeus''; it, Oronzio Fineo; 20 December 1494 – 8 August 1555) was a French mathematician, cartographer, editor and book illustrator. Life Born in Briançon, the son and grandson of p ...
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Camille Flammarion Nicolas Camille Flammarion FRAS (; 26 February 1842 – 3 June 1925) was a French astronomer and author. He was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fiction ...
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Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion (née Renaudot) (31 May 1877 – 28 October 1962) was a French astronomer. She worked at the Camille Flammarion Observatory at Juvisy-sur-Orge, France, and was General Secretary of the Société Astronomique de Fr ...
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Honoré Flaugergues Pierre-Gilles-Antoine-Honoré Flaugergues, usually known as Honoré Flaugergues (16 May 1755 in Viviers, Ardèche – 26 November 1835 or 20 November 1830different sources give different years of death) was a French astronomer. Biography Flauger ...
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Jean Focas Jean-Henri Focas ( el, Ιωάννης Ε. Φωκάς; 20 July 1909 – 3 January 1969) was a Greek-French astronomer, painter, designer, illustrator, astrophysicists, photographer, celestial cartographer and spoke five languages. He performed v ...
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Georges Fournier Georges Fournier (21 November 1881 – 1 December 1954) was a French astronomer.Camille Flammarion, G.C. Flammarion, J. Camus''Georges Fournier.''L'Astronomie, Vol. 69 (1955), p. 201 He observed the planet Mars with great detail. In 1909 he ...


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Jean Baptiste Aimable Gaillot Jean Baptiste Aimable Gaillot (27 April 1834 – 4 June 1921) (known as Aimable Gaillot) was an astronomer at the '' Observatoire de Paris'' from 1861 to 1903. He was born to Jean Baptiste Gaillot and Marie Catherine Gillet on 27 April 1834 in Sa ...
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Jean-Félix Adolphe Gambart Jean-Félix Adolphe Gambart (12 May 1800 – 23 July 1836) was a French astronomer. He was born in Sète in Hérault department, the son of a sea captain. His intelligence was noticed at a young age by Alexis Bouvard, who persuaded him to joi ...
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Pierre Gassendi Pierre Gassendi (; also Pierre Gassend, Petrus Gassendi; 22 January 1592 – 24 October 1655) was a French philosopher, Catholic priest, astronomer, and mathematician. While he held a church position in south-east France, he also spent much tim ...
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Casimir Marie Gaudibert Casimir Marie Gaudibert (4 March 1823 – 9 June 1901) was a French amateur astronomer and selenographer. Gaudibert produced a map of the Moon in 1887. Under the direction of Camille Flammarion Nicolas Camille Flammarion FRAS (; 26 Februa ...
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Gersonides Levi ben Gershon (1288 – 20 April 1344), better known by his Graecized name as Gersonides, or by his Latinized name Magister Leo Hebraeus, or in Hebrew by the abbreviation of first letters as ''RaLBaG'', was a medieval French Jewish philosoph ...
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Michel Giacobini Michel Giacobini (1873–1938) was a French astronomer. He discovered a number of comets, including 21P/Giacobini-Zinner (parent body of the Giacobinids meteor shower), 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak, and 205P/Giacobini. The latter he had disc ...
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Louis Godin Louis Godin (28 February 1704 – 11 September 1760) was a French astronomer and member of the French Academy of Sciences. He worked in Peru, Spain, Portugal and France. Biography Godin was born in Paris; his parents were François Godin and Eli ...
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François Gonnessiat François Gonnessiat (May 22, 1856 (Nurieux-Volognat)–October 18, 1934) was a French astronomer, observer of comets and discoverer of two minor planets. He worked at the Observatory of Lyon. In 1889 he won the Lalande Prize for astronomy from ...


H

* Maurice Hamy *
Michel Hénon Michel Hénon (; 23 July 1931, Paris – 7 April 2013, Nice) was a French mathematician and astronomer. He worked for a long time at the Nice Observatory. In astronomy, Hénon is well known for his contributions to stellar dynamics. In the late ...
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Paul Henry and Prosper Henry Paul-Pierre Henry (Paul Henry) (21 August 1848 – 4 January 1905) and his brother Prosper-Mathieu Henry (Prosper Henry) (10 December 1849 – 25 July 1903) were French opticians and astronomers. They made refracting telescopes and instruments ...
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Pierre Hérigone Pierre Hérigone (Latinized as Petrus Herigonius) (1580–1643) was a French mathematician and astronomer. Of Basque origin, Hérigone taught in Paris for most of his life. Works Only one work by Hérigone is known to exist: ''Cursus mathematicu ...
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Gustave-Adolphe Hirn Gustave-Adolphe Hirn (21 August 1815 – 14 January 1890) was a French physicist, astronomer. mathematician and engineer who made important measurements of the mechanical equivalent of heat and contributions to the early development of thermodyna ...


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Pierre Janssen Pierre Jules César Janssen (22 February 1824 – 23 December 1907), usually known as Jules Janssen, was a French astronomer who, along with English scientist Joseph Norman Lockyer, is credited with discovering the gaseous nature of the solar ...
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Odette Jasse Odette Jasse (21 August 1899 – 9 January 1949) was a French astronomer who led a scientific and administrative career at the Marseille Observatory. Biography Jasse was born in Saint-Victoret, France. Her parents were a teacher and a customs ins ...
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René Jarry-Desloges René Jarry-Desloges (February 1, 1868 – June 1, 1951) was a French amateur astronomer who worked at his own observatory. He observed the planets, and claimed to have confirmed Giovanni Schiaparelli Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli ( , ...
* Stéphane Javelle *
Edme-Sébastien Jeaurat Edme-Sébastien Jeaurat (14 September 1725 – 7 March 1803) was a French astronomer most notable for publishing a map of the 64 stars of the Pleiades in 1786. He was a member of the French Academy of Sciences. He originally studied art, rec ...
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Benjamin Jekhowsky Benjamin Jekhowsky ( ru , Вениамин Павлович Жеховский, born 1881 in Saint-Petersburg (Russia), died in 1975, Encausse-les-Thermes (France)) was a Russian–French astronomer, born in Saint-Petersburg in a noble family o ...
* Robert Jonckhèere


K

* Samuel Kansi *
Dorothea Klumpke Dorothea Klumpke Roberts (August 9, 1861 in San Francisco – October 5, 1942 in San Francisco) was an American astronomer. She was Director of the Bureau of Measurements at the Paris Observatory and was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honn ...


L

* Philippe de La Hire *
Antoine Émile Henry Labeyrie Antoine Émile Henry Labeyrie (born 12 May 1943) is a French astronomer, who held the Observational astrophysics chair at the Collège de France between 1991 and 2014, where he is currently professor emeritus. He is working with the Hypertelesc ...
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Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (; 15 March 171321 March 1762), formerly sometimes spelled de la Caille, was a kingdom of France, French astronomer and geodesist who named 14 out of the IAU designated constellations, 88 constellations. From 1750 ...
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Joseph-Louis Lagrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaJoanny-Philippe Lagrula Joanny-Philippe Lagrula (1870–1941) was a French astronomer. He was sometimes referred to as Philippe Lagrula. In 1901, he wrote his thesis at the University of Lyon. At the time, occultations of the Pleiades by the Moon were important for m ...
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Jérôme Lalande Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande (; 11 July 1732 – 4 April 1807) was a French astronomer, freemason and writer. Biography Lalande was born at Bourg-en-Bresse (now in the département of Ain) to Pierre Lefrançois and Marie‐Anne‐Gab ...
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Marie-Jeanne de Lalande Marie-Jeanne-Amélie Le Francais de Lalande, born Marie-Jeanne Harlay (1768 – 8 November 1832), was a French astronomer and mathematician. Biography Lalande married her father's young cousin, also an astronomer, Michel Lefrançois de Lalande (1 ...
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Michel Lefrançois de Lalande Michel Lefrançois de Lalande (21 April 1766 – 8 April 1839) was a French astronomer. Biography He was the son of Jean Lefrançois, first cousin of Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande, astronomer. He took the name of his cousin Brother Je ...
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André Lallemand André Lallemand (; September 29, 1904 – March 24, 1978) was a French astronomer and director of the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris. Lallemand made important contributions to the development of photomultipliers for astronomical use and the "e ...
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Félix Chemla Lamèch Félix Chemla Lamèch (1894 – 1962) was a Greek-French, astronomer, meteorologist, selenographer, and celestial cartographer. In 1924, he founded the Corfu Observatory. He also founded the first Astronomical Society of Greece on the island o ...
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Pierre-Simon Laplace Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (; ; 23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French scholar and polymath whose work was important to the development of engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics, astronomy, and philosophy. He summarized ...
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Jacques Laskar Jacques Laskar (born 28 April 1955 in Paris) is a French astronomer. He is a research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), and a member of ''Astronomy and dynamical systems'' of the Institute of Celestial Mechanics ...
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Marguerite Laugier Marguerite Laugier (née Lhomme) (12 September 1896 – 10 June 1976) was a French astronomer active at the Nice Observatory from the 1930s to the 1950s. Contemporary astronomical articles refer to her as "Madame Laugier". The Minor Planet Cente ...
* Paul-Auguste-Ernest Laugier *
Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent (or Joseph Laurent) (died 1900) was a French amateur astronomer and chemist who discovered the asteroid 51 Nemausa in 1858, for which he was a recipient of the Lalande Prize awarded by the French Academ ...
* Jean Le Fèvre *
Guillaume Le Gentil Guillaume Joseph Hyacinthe Jean-Baptiste Le Gentil de la Galaisière (, 12 September 1725 – 22 October 1792) was a French astronomer who discovered several nebulae and was appointed to the Royal Academy of Sciences. He made unsuccessful attemp ...
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Pierre Charles Le Monnier Pierre Charles Le Monnier (; 23 November 1715 – 3 April 1799) was a French astronomer. His name is sometimes given as Lemonnier. Biography Le Monnier was born in Paris, where his father Pierre (1675–1757), also an astronomer, was professor ...
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Urbain Le Verrier Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier FRS (FOR) HFRSE (; 11 March 1811 – 23 September 1877) was a French astronomer and mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for predicting the existence and position of Neptune using ...
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Nicole-Reine Lepaute Nicole-Reine Lepaute () née Étable de la Brière, also erroneously known as Hortense Lepaute, (5 January 1723 – 6 December 1788) was a French astronomer and human computer. Lepaute along with Alexis Clairaut and Jérôme Lalande calculated t ...
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Edmond Modeste Lescarbault Edmond Modeste Lescarbault (1814, Châteaudun - 1894), was a French doctor and an amateur astronomer, best remembered for his 1859 supposed observation of the non-existent planet Vulcan (hypothetical planet), Vulcan. He graduated and obtained his ...
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Emmanuel Liais Emmanuel Liais (15 February 1826–5 March 1900) was a French astronomer, botanist and explorer who spent many years in Brazil. He was born in Cherbourg, the son of a wealthy family in the shipbuilding industry. He was an amateur scienti ...
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Jean-Baptiste Lislet Geoffroy Jean-Baptiste Lislet Geoffroy (also known as Geoffrey L'Islet) (23 August 1755 – 8 February 1836) was a French astronomer, botanist and cartographer. Early life Lislet Geoffroy was born on 23 August 1755 in Saint-Pierre, Réunion and died on 8 ...
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Maurice Loewy Maurice (Moritz) Loewy (15 April 1833 – 15 October 1907) was a French astronomer. Loewy was born in Vienna.According to investigations by Anneliese Schnell (''Maurice Loewy and the equatorial Coudé in Vienna'', Astronomische Nachrichten, Vol. ...
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Jean-Pierre Luminet Jean-Pierre Luminet (born 3 June 1951) is a French astrophysicist, specializing in black holes and cosmology. He is an emeritus research director at the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique). Luminet is a member of the Laboratoir ...
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Bernard Lyot Bernard Ferdinand Lyot (27 February 1897 in Paris – 2 April 1952 in Cairo) was a French astronomer. Biography An avid reader of the works of Camille Flammarion, he became a member of the Société Astronomique de France in 1915 and made h ...


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* Louis Maillard *
Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan (26 November 1678 – 20 February 1771) was a French geophysicist, astronomer and most notably, chronobiologist, was born in the town of Béziers on 26 November 1678. De Mairan lost his father, François d'Ortou ...
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Giacomo F. Maraldi Giacomo Filippo Maraldi (21 August 1665 – 1 December 1729) was a French-Italian astronomer and mathematician. His name is also given as Jacques Philippe Maraldi. Born in Perinaldo (modern Liguria) he was the nephew of Giovanni Cassini, and w ...
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Giovanni Domenico Maraldi Giovanni Domenico () Maraldi (17 April 1709 – 14 November 1788) was an Italy, Italian-born astronomer, nephew of Giacomo F. Maraldi. Born at Perinaldo, Liguria, Maraldi came to Paris in 1727 and became a member of the French Academy of Sciences ...
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Claude-Louis Mathieu Claude-Louis Mathieu or Louis Mathieu (25 November 1783 in Mâcon – 5 March 1875 in Paris) was a French mathematician and astronomer who began his career as an engineer. He worked with the Bureau des Longitudes and tried to determine the dist ...
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Pierre Louis Maupertuis Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (; ; 1698 – 27 July 1759) was a French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters. He became the Director of the Académie des Sciences, and the first President of the Prussian Academy of Science, at the ...
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Alain Maury Alain J. Maury (born 1958) is a French astronomer who has discovered numerous asteroids. He discovered the periodic comet 115P/Maury as well as the non-periodic C/1988 C1 (Maury-Phinney). He has discovered a number of asteroids, including the ...
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Victor Mauvais Félix-Victor Mauvais (or Victor Mauvais; March 7, 1809 – March 22, 1854) was a French politician and astronomer. He was born in the small village of Maîche in the department of Doubs and died in Paris. In 1836 he went to the Observatoire de ...
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Pierre Méchain Pierre François André Méchain (; 16 August 1744 – 20 September 1804) was a French astronomer and surveyor who, with Charles Messier, was a major contributor to the early study of deep-sky objects and comets. Life Pierre Méchain was born i ...
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Jean-Claude Merlin Jean-Claude Merlin (born 1954) is a French astronomer, founder-president of the Burgundy Astronomical Society (french: Société Astronomique de Bourgogne) and a discoverer of minor planets. He was laureate of the Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet Fond ...
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Charles Messier Charles Messier (; 26 June 1730 – 12 April 1817) was a French astronomer. He published an astronomical catalogue consisting of 110 nebulae and star clusters, which came to be known as the ''Messier objects''. Messier's purpose f ...
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François Mignard François Mignard (born 1949) is a French astronomer and the director of the CERGA Observatory (french: Centre de recherches en géodynamique et astrométrie, link=no) of the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur in southern France. He is an expert in s ...
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Gaston Millochau Gaston Millochau (born 1866, date of death unknown) was a French astronomer. From 1899 until 1903 he observed Mars at the Meudon Observatory The Paris Observatory (french: Observatoire de Paris ), a research institution of the Paris Sciences ...
* Henri Mineur * Antonio Mizauld *
Théophile Moreux Théophile Moreux (20 November 1867 – 13 July 1954) was a French astronomer and meteorologist. Life Moreux was born at Argent-sur-Sauldre, Cher on 20 November 1867. He initiated the Bourges Observatory at the seminary St Célestin at Bourges, ...
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Jean-Baptiste Morin (mathematician) Jean-Baptiste Morin (February 23, 1583 – November 6, 1656), also known by the Latinized name as Morinus, was a French mathematician, astrologer, and astronomer. Life and work Born in Villefranche-sur-Saône, in the Beaujolais, he began stud ...
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Ernest Mouchez Ernest Amédée Barthélemy Mouchez (24 August 1821 – 29 June 1892) was a French naval officer who became director of the Paris Observatory and launched the ill-fated ''Carte du Ciel'' project in 1887. Life Born in Madrid, Spain, Mouchez emba ...


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Charles Nordmann Charles Nordmann (1881–1940) was a French astronomer. Publications * ''Einstein et l'univers: Une lueur dans le mystère des choses'' (1921) External links * * * 1881 births 1940 deaths 20th-century French astronomers Place of bi ...


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André Patry André Patry (22 November 1902 – 20 June 1960) was a French astronomer and discoverer of 9 minor planets in the late 1930s. Patry was orphaned at a young age, and began working as a 17-year-old at the Nice Observatory in southeastern France. H ...
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Jean-Claude Pecker Jean-Claude Pecker (10 May 1923 – 20 February 2020) was a French astronomer, astrophysicist and author, member of the French Academy of Sciences and director of the Nice Observatory. He served as the secretary-general of the International Ast ...
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Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1 December 1580 – 24 June 1637), often known simply as Peiresc, or by the Latin form of his name, Peirescius, was a French astronomer, antiquary and savant, who maintained a wide correspondence with scientis ...
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Julien Peridier Julien Péridier (1882 – April 19, 1967) was a French electrical engineer and amateur astronomer. For his work he was made an Officer of the Legion of Honour. In 1933 he founded a private observatory at Le Houga (Gers), France. After his de ...
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Henri Joseph Anastase Perrotin Henri Joseph Anastase Perrotin (December 19, 1845 – February 29, 1904) was a French astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets. Some sources give his middle name as Athanase. In his early career, he and Guillaume Bigourdan were assis ...
* Frédéric Petit *
Pierre Petit (engineer) Pierre Petit (8 December 1594His birth year is sometimes given as 1598. – 20 August 1677) was a French astronomer, physicist, mathematician and instrument maker. Petit was born in Montluçon. He succeeded his father in his municipal office (''Co ...
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Jean Picard Jean Picard (21 July 1620 – 12 July 1682) was a French astronomer and priest born in La Flèche, where he studied at the Jesuit Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand. He is principally notable for his accurate measure of the size of the Earth, base ...
* Louise du Pierry *
Alexandre Guy Pingré Dom (title), Dom Alexandre Guy Pingré (11 September 1711 – 1 May 1796) was a French canon regular, astronomer and naval geographer. Early life Pingré was born in Paris but was educated by the canons regular of the St. Vincent Abbey, Senlis, A ...
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Christian Pollas Christian Pollas (b. 1947) is a French astronomer, known for the discovery and observation of minor planets and supernovae. Pollas is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 26 asteroids, some co-discovered with Eric W. Elst, ...
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Jean-Louis Pons Jean-Louis Pons (24 December 176114 October 1831) was a French astronomer. Despite humble beginnings and being self-taught, he went on to become the greatest visual comet discoverer of all time: between 1801 and 1827 Pons discovered thirty-seven ...
* Philippe Gustave le Doulcet, Comte de Pontécoulant *
Jean-Loup Puget Jean-Loup Puget (born 7 March 1947) is a French astrophysicist. His current research interests lie in the Cosmic Microwave Background. Jean-Loup Puget and his collaborators reported the first identification of the Cosmic infrared background usi ...
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Pierre Puiseux Pierre Henri Puiseux (; 20 July 1855 – 28 September 1928) was a French astronomer. Born in Paris, son of Victor Puiseux, he was educated at the École Normale Supérieure before starting work as an astronomer at the Paris Observatory in ...


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Ferdinand Quénisset Ferdinand Jules Quénisset (1872–1951) was a French astronomer who specialized in astrophotography. Early life and career Quénisset was born on 8 August 1872 in Paris, the son of Gatien Jules Quénisset, an assistant director of the Admin ...


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Georges Rayet Georges-Antoine-Pons Rayet (12 December 1839 – 14 June 1906) was a French astronomer. He was born in Bordeaux, France. He began working at the Paris Observatory in 1863. He worked on meteorology in addition to astronomy. He specialized ...
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Jean Richer Jean Richer (1630–1696) was a French astronomer and assistant (''élève astronome'') at the French Academy of Sciences, under the direction of Giovanni Domenico Cassini. Between 1671 and 1673 he performed experiments and carried out celestial ...
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Édouard Roche Édouard Albert Roche (; 17 October 1820 – 27 April 1883) was a French astronomer and mathematician, who is best known for his work in the field of celestial mechanics. His name was given to the concepts of the Roche sphere, Roche limit, and Ro ...
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Pierre Rousseau Pierre Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (11 February 1905 – 1983) was a French essayist, epistemologist, astronomer and journalist who authored numerous popular science essays and articles. He helped promote hard science to the general public and advocat ...
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Augustin Royer Augustin Royer was a French architectKanas. N., (2007) ''Star Maps: History, Artistry, and Cartography'', Praxis, Chichester, p. 159. who lived in the time of Louis XIV. In 1679 he published a star map; in addition to the 48 constellations of P ...
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Lucien Rudaux Lucien Rudaux (1874–1947) was a French artist and astronomer, who created famous paintings of space themes in the 1920s and 1930s. The Rudaux crater on Mars and the Lucien Rudaux Memorial Award are named in his honor. The asteroid 35 ...


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Nicolas Sarrabat Fr. Nicolas Sarrabat or Sarabat (February 7, 1698 – April 27, 1739), also known as Nicolas Sarrabat de la Baisse, was an eighteenth-century French mathematician and scientist. He was born in Lyon, the son of the painter Daniel Sarrabat (1666–1 ...
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Félix Savary Félix Savary, who was born on 4 October 1797 in Paris and died on 15 July 1841 in Estagel, was a French astronomer.
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Évry Schatzman Evry Léon Schatzman (16 September 1920 – 25 April 2010) was a French scientist hailed as "the father of modern French astrophysics". Background His father, Benjamin Schatzman, was a dentist born in Tulcea, Romania, and emigrated at a young ag ...
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Alexandre Schaumasse Alexandre Schaumasse (1882–1958) was a French astronomer and discoverer of comets and minor planets. His discoveries include the periodic comet 24P/Schaumasse, and the two non-periodic comets C/1913 J1 (Schaumasse) or 1913 II, and C/1917 H1 ...
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Alfred Schmitt Alfred Schmitt (30 November 1907 – 2 April 1973) was a French astronomer. Schmitt worked at Algiers Observatory in the 1930s and 1940s and at the Royal Observatory in Uccle, Belgium in the 1950s. From 1955 to 1958 he was also director of the ...
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Jean-François Séguier Jean-François Séguier (; 25 November 1703 – 1 September 1784) was a French archaeologist, epigraphist, astronomer and botanist from Nîmes. He studied law in Montpellier, during which time, he developed a passion for botany. He was a f ...
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Achille Pierre Dionis du Séjour Achille Pierre Dionis du Séjour (January 11, 1734 – August 22, 1794) was a French astronomer and mathematician.Electronic Enlightenment Project (2008) ''Achille Pierre Dionis Du Séjour correspondence.'' Dionis du Séjour was born in Paris and ...
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Édouard Stephan Édouard Jean-Marie Stephan (31 August 1837 – 31 December 1923) was a French astronomer. His surname is sometimes spelled Stéphan in some literature, but this is apparently erroneous. He was born in Sainte Pezenne (today one of the districts ...
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Frédéric Sy Frédéric Sy was a French astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets. He worked at the Paris Observatory from 1879 to 1887, and as the assistant astronomer at the Algiers Observatory, North Africa, from 1887 to 1918. While working in Algier ...
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Pope Sylvester II Pope Sylvester II ( – 12 May 1003), originally known as Gerbert of Aurillac, was a French-born scholar and teacher who served as the bishop of Rome and ruled the Papal States from 999 to his death. He endorsed and promoted study of Arab and Gre ...


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Agop Terzan Agop Terzan (born Terziyan) (October 31, 1927 – April 4, 2020) was a Turkish- Armenian astronomer. Born in Constantinople Istanbul, he finished his high school from Getronagan Armenian High School, after he received his Bachelor's Degree in Ma ...
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Louis Thollon Louis Thollon (2 May 1829 – 8 April 1887) was a French astronomer. He was born in Ambronay, France. Beginning in 1881, Thollon joined the staff of the new Nice Observatory where he undertook a long-term observation program of the Sun using a spe ...
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Félix Tisserand François Félix Tisserand (13 January 1845 – 20 October 1896) was a French astronomer. Life Tisserand was born at Nuits-Saint-Georges, Côte-d'Or. In 1863 he entered the École Normale Supérieure, and on leaving he went for a month as profes ...
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Étienne Léopold Trouvelot Étienne Léopold Trouvelot (December 26, 1827 – April 22, 1895) was a French artist, astronomer and amateur entomologist. He is noted for the import and release of the spongy moth into North America. The spread of the moths as an invasive s ...


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Jacques Vallée Jacques Fabrice Vallée (; born September 24, 1939) is an Internet pioneer, computer scientist, venture capitalist, author, ufologist and astronomer currently residing in San Francisco, California and Paris, France. His scientific career began ...
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Joseph Gaultier de la Vallette Joseph Gaultier de la Vallette (24 November 1564, in Rians – 1 December 1647, in Aix-en-Provence) was a 17th-century French astronomer. He was a contemporary and friend of Galileo and Peiresc. With Peiresc he observed the moons of Jupiter in ...
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Benjamin Valz Jean Elias Benjamin Valz (May 27, 1787 – April 22, 1867) was a French astronomer. He was born in Nîmes and trained as an engineer. He was the son of politician Jean Valz and the grandson of the doctor, meteorologist and naturalist Pierre ...
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Gérard de Vaucouleurs Gérard Henri de Vaucouleurs (25 April 1918 – 7 October 1995) was a French astronomer. Life and career Born in Paris, he had an early interest in amateur astronomy and received his undergraduate degree in 1939 at the Sorbonne in that city. ...
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Philippe Véron Philippe Véron (2 March 1939 – 7 August 2014) was a French astronomer. He worked at Observatoire de Haute Provence, where he was director from 1985 to 1994. He studied variability and statistics of quasars, as well as elliptical galaxies. He ...
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Pierre-Antoine Véron Pierre-Antoine Véron (1736–1770) was a French astronomer and mathematician. He was a disciple of astronomer and writer Jérôme Lalande at the Collège Royal. Véron is famous for having made a historical observation of the size of the Pacific ...
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Yvon Villarceau Antoine-Joseph Yvon Villarceau (15 January 1813 – 23 December 1883) was a French astronomer, mathematician, and engineer. He constructed an equatorial meridian-instrument and an isochronometric regulator for the Paris Observatory. He wrote '' ...


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* Charles Wolf


References


Astronomical Society of the Pacific: Women in Astronomy


See also

*
List of women astronomers The following is a list of astronomers, astrophysicists and other notable women who have made contributions to the field of astronomy. __NOTOC__ A * Madge Adam (1912–2001), English solar astronomer * Maggie Aderin-Pocock (born 1968), Englis ...
*
List of Russian astronomers and astrophysicists This list of Russian astronomers and astrophysicists includes the famous astronomers, astrophysicists and cosmologists from the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. Alphabetical list __NOTOC__ A *Tateos Agekian, one o ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Astronomers, List Of
French astronomers French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
*
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...