Guillaume Bigourdan
Guillaume Bigourdan ( born April 6, 1851 in Sistels, France, † February 28, 1932 in Paris) was a French astronomer and President of the Académie des Sciences in Paris.
Career
Guillaume Bigourdan grew up as the oldest of three children of Pierre and Jeanne Bigourdan Carrère on the humble a farmhouse. After his teacher and the village priest had become aware of his high intelligence allowed him by his parents, regardless of their material needs to attend high school, which he completed in 1870 with the Abitur. In the course of his further studies he acquired in 1874 a license (now Bachelor) in Physics, two years later for mathematics.
In 1877 appointed François Félix Tisserand, his former teacher and former director of the observatory of Toulouse him to the wizard. In 1879 he followed Tisserand, who had become director of the observatory of Paris, in the French capital. During his tenure he traveled in 1882 on the Caribbean island of Martinique, to observe the transit of Venus and the following year to Saint Petersburg. He received his doctorate in 1886. Observatory in he took, among other things the training of his 15-year old assistant Gaston Fayet ( 1874-1967 ), who for many years worked with him and later served as director of the observatory of Nice.
It was built in 1897 Titularastronom the Paris Observatory in 1920 and first director of the recently founded the Bureau International de l' Heure 1926 and entered into retirement.
Guillaume Bigourdan died on 28 February 1932 at the age of 80 in Paris.
He was married to Sophie Mouchez, a daughter of Admiral Amédée Mouchez (1821-1892), Director of the Observatory of Paris. The marriage produced nine children were born.
Work
Bigourdan spent twenty years in order to verify the positions of 6380 nebulae and to describe. He discovered about 500 new objects. His published in five volumes in 1911, research results helped him to international fame. He also described a method for adjusting the equatorial telescope mount, which is known as " method Bigourdans ".