X-Nico

Atlas Coelestis

Finally, the changes in the positions of stars (the original observations were made in the 1690s), led to an update made in the 1770s by the French engineer Jean Nicolas Fortin, supervised by the astronomers Le Monnier and Messier, from the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris.

Pierre Charles Le Monnier

Le Monnier was born in Paris, where his father Pierre (1675–1757), also an astronomer, was professor of philosophy at the college d'Harcourt.

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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.

see also