Auguste Charlois

Auguste Honoré Pierre Charlois (* November 26, 1864 in La Cadière- d'Azur, † March 26, 1910 ) was a French astronomer.

During his time at the observatory of Nice Charlois discovered 99 asteroids. The first was (267 ) Tirzah, which he found in 1887. He also photographed the asteroid ( 433 ) Eros during the night of his discovery by Gustav Witt. However, Witt could announce the first he had found, so that the discovery of Eros was awarded to him.

Charlois began his search for the asteroid even during the era of visual sky observations at the telescope. The German astronomer Max Wolf had in 1891 the photographic process radically improved for use in astronomy and also used for the discovery of asteroids. Asteroids have - in comparison to the stars - a large proper motion, and appear on long-exposure images of the sky as a line tracks. Charlois took over the photographic process, and in the following years he and Wolf discovered much more asteroids than would have been possible by visual observation.

Charlois was murdered ( the brother of his first wife ) at the age of 46 years by his former brother in law who could not get over that Charlois married again. The murderer was sentenced to life in forced labor in New Caledonia.

Charlois received the 1899 Jules Janssen Award. In his honor, the asteroid (1510 ) Charlois was named after him.