X-Nico

6 unusual facts about Paris Observatory


35P/Herschel–Rigollet

Through December and January the comet was observed by Nevil Maskelyne at the Greenwich Observatory and by Charles Messier at the Paris Observatory.

59 Elpis

Urbain Le Verrier, director of the Paris Observatory, at first refused to allow Chacornac to name the object, because Leverrier was promoting a plan to reorganize asteroid nomenclature by naming them after their discoverers, rather than mythological figures.

La Plata Astronomical Observatory

A year earlier, the Paris Observatory had sent astronomical instruments to the city of Bragado, Buenos Aires, to observe a transit of Venus in front of the Sun, for which the location was particularly suitable, and which raised considerable interest in scientific circles.

Lalande 21185

The celestial coordinates of Lalande 21185 were first published in 1801 by French astronomer Jérôme Lalande of the Paris Observatory in the star catalog, Histoire Céleste Française.

Maria A. Barucci

Maria Antonella Barucci is an astronomer at the Observatory-Meudon,Paris.

Pierre Charles Le Monnier

He corresponded with James Bradley, was the first to represent the effects of nutation in the solar tables, and introduced, in 1741, the use of the transit-instrument at the Paris Observatory.


Château de Meudon

The main building was largely destroyed in a fire in 1871, and it is now the site of the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon.

Henri-Alexandre Deslandres

In 1868, Pierre Janssen's solar observations had led him to report to the Académie des Sciences that It is no longer geometry and mechanics which dominate in astronomy but physics and chemistry. Such advice was sternly rejected by director of the Paris Observatory Urbain Le Verrier and the French government awarded Janssen a grant to establish an astrophysical observatory at Meudon on the outskirts of Paris with Janssen as the sole astronomer.

Maurice Loewy

The director of the observatory Karl L. Littrow was a correspondent of Urbain Le Verrier, director of the Paris Observatory and he secured a position there for Loewy in 1860.

Monique Canto-Sperber

Paris Sciences et Lettres – Quartier latin (PSL) is a new research university, made of cooperative actions between the École normale supérieure, the Collège de France, ESPCI ParisTech, Chimie ParisTech, Paris Observatory, Paris Dauphine University and the Curie Institute.

United States Naval Observatory

In November 1913 the Paris Observatory, using the Eiffel Tower as an antenna, exchanged sustained wireless (radio) signals with the United States Naval Observatory, using an antenna in Arlington, Virginia to determine the exact difference of longitude between the two institutions.


see also

Félix Tisserand

In 1892 he succeeded Mouchez as director of the Paris Observatory, and as president of the committee of the photographic chart of the heavens he contributed largely to the success of that great project.