Baron Marie-Charles-Théodore de Damoiseau de Montfort (6 April 1768 in

Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzer ...

– 6 August 1846) 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, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

. Damoiseau was originally an artillery officer but he left

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

in 1792 during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

. He worked as assistant director of the Lisbon Observatory before he returned to France in 1807. In 1825, he was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the Bureau des Longitudes. He is best known for publishing lunar tables (positions of the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

) between 1824–1828.

Scientific work

Theory of the Moon

In 1818 Laplace proposed that the

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

in Paris set up a prize to be awarded to whoever succeeded in constructing lunar tables based solely on the law of universal gravity. In 1820 the prize was awarded to Carlini and Plana and to Damoiseau by a committee of which Laplace was a member.

Satellites of Jupiter

See also *David P. Todd, ''A continuation of de Damoiseau's tables of the satellites of Jupiter, to the year 1900'', 1876 *John Couch Adams, ''Continuation of Tables I. and III. of Damoiseau's Tables of Jupiter's satellites'', 1877

Honors

* He won the

Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society The Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society is the highest award given by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). The RAS Council have "complete freedom as to the grounds on which it is awarded" and it can be awarded for any reason. Past awar ...

in 1831. * Elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1832.* * The crater Damoiseau on the

is named after him.

Manuscripts

The Paris observatory holds a large set of manuscripts from Damoiseau. See ''Manuscrits Damoiseau'' on http://alidade.obspm.fr

Publications

*''Éphémérides nauticas, ou Diario astronomico para 1799''

1805 After thirteen years the First French Empire abolished the French Republican Calendar in favour of the Gregorian calendar. Events January–March * January 11 – The Michigan Territory is created. * February 7 – King Anouvong become ...

''calculado no Observatorio real da marinha'' (8 volumes, 1798–1802) *''Memoria relativa aos eclipses do sol visiveis em Lisboa, desde 1800 até 1900 inclusivamente'' (1801) *''Tables de la lune, formées par la seule théorie de l'attraction et suivant la division de la circonférence en 400 degrés'' (1824) *''Tables de la lune, formées par la seule théorie de l'attraction et suivant la division de la circonférence en 360 degrés'' (1828) *''Tables écliptiques des satellites de Jupiter, d'après la théorie de leurs attractions mutuelles et les constantes déduites des observations'' (1836), https://books.google.com/books?id=E-gRAAAAYAAJ

References

*G. Tagliaferri and P. Tucci, Carlini and Plana on the theory of the moon and their dispute with Laplace, Ann. of Sci. 56 (3) (1999), 221-269.

External links

French Academy of Sciences on-line biography
1768 births 1846 deaths 19th-century French astronomers Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society Scientists from Besançon Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Foreign Members of the Royal Society Members of the French Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Lalande Prize {{france-astronomer-stub