A. Laurent

A. Laurent (or J. Laurent) was a French amateur astronomer who discovered the asteroid 51 Nemausa in 1858, for which he was a recipient of the Lalande Prize awarded by the French Academy of Sciences. His first name is apparently unknown, and even his first initial is somewhat unclear.

He never made any more asteroid discoveries and not much more seems to be known about him. He was described as a "very skillful young man" (un jeune homme très habile) by Édouard Stephan. He was described as a "distinguished pupil of the Marseille school", and as an amateur astronomer and an inspector of the assay office in Nîmes (contrôleur du bureau de garantie de Nîmes).

The asteroid was discovered using the private observatory at the house formerly occupied by Benjamin Valz, who left in 1836 to become the new director of the Marseille Observatory. He entrusted his former observatory to Laurent, who later found the asteroid. The house, at 32 rue Nationale in Nîmes (at that time known as rue de l'Agau), has a plaque commemorating the discovery.

Laurent was awarded the Lalande Prize of the French Academy of Sciences in 1858 for his discovery, jointly with five other asteroid and comet discoverers. In addition, asteroid 162 Laurentia was named in his honour.

Nineteenth-century sources do not mention his first name, referring to him only as "M. Laurent", the standard French abbreviation for Monsieur Laurent.

His initial is given as "A." in the list of asteroid discoverers maintained by the Minor Planet Center, as well as in the Dictionary of Minor Planet Names by Lutz D. Schmadel at the entries for both 51 Nemausa and 162 Laurentia. At these entries Schmadel cites Astronomische Nachrichten articles which however do not mention the discoverer's initial. He also cites The Names of the Minor Planets (OCLC 1829066) by Paul Herget of the Cincinnati Observatory, on pages 8 and 20, respectively; this was a predecessor publication to his own work and initially an important source for it.

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