Abbé Réginald Outhier also given as Regnauld or Renaud Outhier (16 August 1694 – 12 April 1774) was a French clergyman, traveller, and writer who worked on cartography and astronomy.
Outhier was born at La Marre-Jouserans, near
Poligny Poligny is the name of several communes in France:
* Poligny, Aube
* Poligny, Hautes-Alpes
* Poligny, Jura
* Poligny, Seine-et-Marne
Poligny () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.
...
, France, and studied at Dole and
Besançon. He became a priest at Besançon where he became interested in astronomy. He later served as a canon at
Bayeux Cathedral
Bayeux Cathedral, also known as Cathedral of Our Lady of Bayeux ( French: ''Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux''), is a Roman Catholic church located in the town of Bayeux in Normandy, France. A national monument, it is the seat of the Bishop of B ...
. In 1726-7 he presented a 5 inch diameter celestial globe to the
Académie Royale des Sciences, which demonstrated the movements of the sun and stars with a clockwork mechanism. This impressed
Cassini II who made him a correspondent to the Royal Academy in 1731. In 1733 he became involved in producing a map of France along with Bishop of Bayeux,
Paul d'Albert de Luynes
Paul d'Albert de Luynes (5 January 1703 – 21 January 1788) was a French prelate. He was elected the seventh occupant of Académie française seat 29 in 1743.
Early life
Paul d'Albert de Luynes was born on 5 January 1703 in the city of Versail ...
and took part in the triangulation surveys from Caen to St. Malo. He was included in the Academy's expedition in 1736-37 to Lapland to examine the shape of the earth. The expedition was led by
Pierre-Louis Moreau de 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 ...
with the scientists included being
Alexis Claude Clairaut, Charles Le Monnier and
Charles Etienne Louis Camus. The Swedish scientist
Anders Celsius was also involved and Outhier was included as physician, astronomer and maintainer of the journal of the expedition. He drew maps of the travels and published the notes on the voyage in 1744. In 1752 he drew an accurate map of the night sky covering the
Pleiades
The Pleiades (), also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45 and other names by different cultures, is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance of ...
.
References
External links
*
Journal d’un voyage au nord, en 1736 et 1737 (1744)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Outhier, Réginald
1694 births
1774 deaths
French astronomers