 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Benjamin Baillaud" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Benjamin Baillaud | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Édouard Benjamin Baillaud (1848-02-14)14 February 1848 |
| Died | 8 July 1934(1934-07-08) (aged 86) |
| Alma mater | École Normale Supérieure University of Paris |
| Occupation | Astronomer |
| Awards | Bruce Medal (1923) |
Édouard Benjamin Baillaud (French pronunciation:[edwaʁbɛ̃ʒamɛ̃bajo]; 14 February 1848 – 8 July 1934) was a Frenchastronomer.
Born inChalon-sur-Saône, Baillaud studied at theÉcole Normale Supérieure (1866-1869)[1] and theUniversity of Paris. He worked as an assistant at theParis Observatory beginning in 1872. Later he was director of theToulouse Observatory from 1878 to 1907, during much of this time serving as Dean of theUniversity of Toulouse Faculty of Science.
He greatly expanded the observatory and enthusiastically supported theCarte du Ciel project. He specialized incelestial mechanics, in particular the motions of thesatellites ofSaturn.
In 1903, the observatory took over a facility on thePic du Midi in thePyrenees that had been founded by amateurs in the 1850s with the goal of putting atelescope there. However, the height of 2865 metres (9400 feet) posed formidable logistical challenges and the ambition had remained unrealised though a meteorological observatory had operated from 1873 to 1880. Baillaud organised a team of soldiers to erect a 0.5 metre (20 inch)reflecting telescope, and 0.25 metrerefracting telescope on the summit.
In 1907, he became director of theParis Observatory where he immediately set to work to relaunch the stalledCarte du Ciel project with a conference held at the observatory, entertained by singers from theParis Opera and refreshed bywine provided by the director of theBordeaux Observatory. Though the French government agreed to fund the project, it was becoming increasingly clear that its objectives were hopelessly unrealistic.
Baillaud was the President of theSociété astronomique de France (SAF), the French astronomical society, from 1909 to 1911.[2]
Baillaud was active intime standardisation, becoming the founding president of theInternational Time Bureau and initiating the transmission of atime signal from theEiffel Tower. Baillaud maintained the observatory and the time signal throughoutWorld War I, even though the GermanhowitzerBig Bertha was targeted on the nominal co-ordinates of Paris, the location of the observatory! Baillaud's concern for the astronomical time standard led him to be an outspoken opponent ofdaylight saving time.
Baillaud became founding president of theInternational Astronomical Union in 1919 and served in this position until 1922. He retired as director of the Paris Observatory in 1926.
He was a regular academician in the astronomy section of theAcadémie des Sciences.[3] He won theBruce Medal in 1923.
The craterBaillaud on theMoon is named after him, and so areasteroids11764 Benbaillaud and1280 Baillauda.
