Astronomy in the Special Collections
Our spotlight exhibition on astronomy ends this week in the Reading Room,
and this is your last chance to see Joseph Jérôme Le Français de Lalande’s Astronomie (Paris
: La veuve Desaint, 1792). Lalande (1732-1807) started his career in
law, but a chance meeting with the astronomer Joseph-Nicolas Delisle
(1688-1768) changed his focus to astronomy. A year later he was in Berlin,
observing the parallax of the moon. He became a member of the Académie royale
des sciences in 1753, and published on Halley’s comet and the planet Venus. He
succeeded De Lisle as professor of astronomy in the Collège de France, and
subsequently became director of the Paris Observatory. His is one of 72 names
inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.
.JPG)
Our copy was gifted by the
author to Nevil Maskelyne (1732-1811), the fifth Astronomer Royal at Greenwich.
You can also view the
spotlight exhibition in its entirety on the digital display wall in the
Hardiman
Foyer during the month of October.
If you would
like to view this item, please contact the staff of the Special Collections
Reading Room in the Hardiman Research Building at specialcollections@nuigalway.ie.
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