Quarter 2 Astronomer Biography: Nicolas Lacaille

Nicolas Lacaille is known as the father of Southern Astronomy.  Born March 5, 1713 near Rheims, France, Lacaille is known most for the naming of 14 constellations that are still identified and used today.  He also complied a list of 42 Southern nebulae that he picked out of the 10,000 stars that he identified during his expedition to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa that started November 21, 1750. 
Before this, Lacaille studued rhetoric and philosophy at Collège de Lisieux in France starting in 1729.  He was able to attend this school because his father paid, but when Lacaille's father died in 1731, he lost his tuition money.  Nicolas Lacaille was able to find a beneficiary, the Duke of Bourbon, to support his studies.  After, Lacaille enrolled in a three-year study at the college of Navarre, in order to obtain ordination for priesthood.  While studying here, he first encountered mathematics and private studies of astronomy.  He graduated in 1736 with a masters and bachelors in Theology, but never obtained ordination for priesthood.
In 1739, Nicolas Lacaille stared working for Jacques Cassini and Jean-Dominique Maraldi at Paris observatory, was involved in the geodesic survey of France.  In 1741, however, Lacaille was elected to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris, and took his post in the Collège Mazarin where he established an observatory.  He began making observations, mainly focusing on Earth's orbit, parallaxes, planetary orbits, comets, and star catalogs.  Lacaille also wrote many textbooks on astronomy, mathematics, mechanics, and optics.  His books were read many places, had many editions and even were translated to different languages.
While working in Paris, Lacaille became interested in exploring the southern skies and decided to enter an expedition to the Cape of Good Hope.  August 6, 1751, Lacaille established an observatory in South Africa and observed the skies for a year.  He was able to determine the positions of about 9,800 stars between the celestial south pole and the tropic of Capricorn.  Among the stars were 42 nebulous stars, 240 principle stars, and 1,930 stars visible to the naked eye that were extracted for creating a planisphere.  He also created 15 constellations, 14 of which are still used today, and took many measurements of the positions of the Moon, the Sun, Venus, and Mars in an effort to obtain parallaxes.  Lacaille finally returned home to Paris June 28, 1754.
Nicolas Lacaille made huge advancements in the field of astronomy.  The fourteen constellations maned by Lacaille were: Antlia, Caelum, Circinus, Fornax, Horologium, Mensa, Microscopium, Norma, Octans, Pictor, Pyxis, Reticulum, Sculptor, and Telescopium.  He was honored for his accomplishments by having a crater on the Moon (La Caille) being named after him in 1961.  An asteroid discovered in 1960 was named Asteroid Lacaille in honor of Nicolas.