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DELISLE, JOSEPH NICOLAS (1688-1768)

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 964 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DELISLE, See also:JOSEPH See also:NICOLAS (1688-1768) , See also:French astronomer, was See also:born at See also:Paris on the 4th of See also:April 1688. Attracted to See also:astronomy by the See also:solar See also:eclipse of the 12th of May 1706, he obtained permission in 1710 to See also:lodge in the See also:dome of the Luxembourg, procured some See also:instruments, and there observed the See also:total eclipse of the 22nd of May 1724. He proposed in 1715 the " diffraction-theory " of the See also:sun's See also:corona, visited See also:England and was received into the Royal Society in 1724, and See also:left Paris for St See also:Petersburg on a See also:summons from the empress See also:Catherine, towards the end of 1725. Having founded an See also:observatory there, he returned to Paris in 1747, was appointed See also:geographical astronomer to the See also:naval See also:department with a See also:salary of 3000 livres, and installed an observatory in the Hotel See also:Cluny. See also:Charles Messier and J. J. See also:Lalande were among his pupils. He died of See also:apoplexy at Paris on the 12th of See also:September 1768. Delisle is chiefly remembered as the author of a method for observing the transits of See also:Venus and See also:Mercury by instants of contacts. First proposed by him in a See also:letter to J. See also:Cassini in 1743, it was afterwards perfected, and has been extensively employed. As a preliminary to the transit of Mercury in 1743, which he personally observed, he issued a See also:map of the See also:world showing the varied circumstances of its occurrence.

Besides many papers communicated to the See also:

academy of sciences, of which he became a member in 1714, he published Memoires pour servir d l'histoire et au progres de l'astronomie (St Petersburg, 1738), in which he gave the first method for determining the See also:heliocentric co-ordinates of sun-spots; Memoire sur See also:les nouvelles decouvertes au nerd de la mer du sud (Paris, 1752), &e. See Memoires de l'acad. See also:des sciences (Paris, 1768), Histoire, p. 167' (G. de Fouchy) ; J. B. J. See also:Delambre, Hist. de l'astronomie au X VIIIe siecle, pp. 319, 533 ; Max. See also:Marie, Hist. des sciences, vii. 254; Lalande, Bibl. astr. p. 385; and Le Necrologe des hommes celebres de See also:France (177o). The records of Delisle's observations at St Petersburg are preserved in See also:manuscript at the Pulkowa observatory. A See also:report upon them was presented to the St Petersburg academy of sciences by 0.

See also:

Struve in 1848, and those See also:relating to occultations of the See also:Pleiades were discussed by Carl Linsser in 1864. See also S. See also:Newcomb, See also:Washington Observations for 1875, app. ii. pp. 176-189. (A. M.

End of Article: DELISLE, JOSEPH NICOLAS (1688-1768)

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