Henri-Alexandre Deslandres
| Henri-Alexandre Deslandres | |
|---|---|
Henri-Alexandre Deslandres
|
|
| Born |
24 July 1853 Paris |
| Died | 15 January 1948 (aged 94) Paris |
| Nationality | French |
| Fields | astronomy |
| Institutions |
Meudon Paris Observatories |
| Alma mater | École Polytechnique |
| Known for | spectroheliograph |
| Notable awards |
Janssen Medal (1896) Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1913) Henry Draper Medal (1913) Fellow of the Royal Society |
Henri Alexandre Deslandres ForMemRS (24 July 1853 – 15 January 1948) was a French astronomer, director of the Meudon and Paris Observatories, who carried out intensive studies on the behaviour of the atmosphere of the Sun.
Deslandres' undergraduate years at the École Polytechnique were played out against the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War and the chaos of the Paris Commune so, on graduation in 1874, he responded to the continuing military tension with the emerging Germany by embarking on a military career. Rising to the rank of captain in the engineers, he became increasingly interested in physics and, in 1881, resigned his commission to join Alfred Cornu's laboratory at the École Polytechnique, working on spectroscopy. He continued his spectroscopic work at the Sorbonne, earning his doctorate in 1888 and finding numerical patterns in spectral lines that paralleled the work of Johann Balmer and were to catalyse the development of quantum mechanics in the 20th century.
In 1868, Pierre Janssen's solar observations had led him to report to the Académie des Sciences that It is no longer geometry and mechanics which dominate [in astronomy] but physics and chemistry. Such advice was sternly rejected by director of the Paris Observatory Urbain Le Verrier and the French government awarded Janssen a grant to establish an astrophysical observatory at Meudon on the outskirts of Paris with Janssen as the sole astronomer. In 1889, Le Verrier was succeeded by Amédée Mouchez who set to work to bring astrophysics into the mainstream by hiring Deslandres. Deslandres developed the spectroheliograph simultaneously with George Hale.
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