Home > Guillaume Le Gentil

( September 12 1725 – October 22 1792) was a French astronomer.

He was born in Coutances and first intended to enter the church before turning to astronomy. He discovered what are now known as the Messier objects M32, M36 and M38, as well as the nebulosity in M8, and he was the first to catalogue the dark nebula in the Cygnus constellation, sometimes known as Le Gentil 3 . However, he is chiefly remembered today for the unfortunate fate that befell him when he set out to observe the transit of Venus in 1761 at Pondicherry, a French colony in IndiaThe Republic of India is a large multicultural country in South Asia, with a population of over one billion. The Indian economy is the fourth largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity, and is the world's second-fastest growing economy..

He set out from Paris in March 1760, and reached Île de France ( MauritiusRepublic of Mauritius Republique de Maurice ( In Detail) National motto: Stella Clavisque Maris Indici( Latin: "Star and Key of the Indian Ocean" Official languages De facto: English, French and Creole Capital Port Louis President Sir Anerood Jugnauth Pri) in July. But having learned that warThis article is about the 1756 1763 war. For the 1592 1598 war in Korea, see Seven Year War. The Seven Years' War ( 1756 1763) pitted Great Britain, Prussia and Hanover against France, Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony. It was the first " world war"; mo had broken out between FranceThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. and BritainThe word Britain is used to refer to the United Kingdom (UK): i. the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (from 1927), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ( 1801- 1927) or the United Kingdom of Great Britain ( 1707- 1801)., and deeming it dangerous to try and reach Pondicherry, he determined to go elsewhere; a frigate was bound for India's Coromandel CoastThe Coromandel Coast is the name given to the southeastern coast of the Indian peninsula. It is generally thought to be derived from the Tamil phrase Chola Mandal or the region mandalam of the Chola, an ancient dynasty of southern India. Historically the, and he sailed in March 1761. When they had nearly arrived they learned that the British had occupied Pondicherry, so the frigate was obliged to return to Île de France. June 6, the day of the transit, came, and the sky was clear, but he could not take astronomical observations with the vessel rolling about. He had gone abroad to see the transit of Venus, and there would be another in eight years, so he made up his mind to stay. (Transits of Venus occur in pairs 8 years apart, but each such pair is separated from the previous and next pairs by more than a century.)

After spending some time mapping the eastern coast of MadagascarSee also Madagascar (movie) Madagascar is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, off the eastern coast of Africa. Madagascar is the 4th largest island in the world. It is the home of five percent of the world's plant and animal species, 80 per cent of them, he decided to record the 1769Events Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen exhibits the " Mechanical Turk", a chess-playing machine May 14 Charles III of Spain sends Spanish missionaries, who found California missions in San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Monterey and begin the settlem transit from Manila in the Philippines. Encountering hostility from the Spanish authorities there, he headed back to Pondicherry, which had been restored to France by peace treaty in 1763, where he arrived in March 1768. He built a small observatory and waited patiently. At last, the day in question (June 3, 1769) arrived, but although the mornings in the preceding month had all been lovely, on this day the sky became overcast, and Le Gentil saw nothing. For some time he was almost crazy, but at last he recovered enough strength to return to France.

The return trip was first delayed by illness, and further when his ship was caught in a storm and dropped him off at Île Bourbon ( Réunion), where he had to wait until a Spanish ship took him home. He finally arrived in Paris in October 1771, only to find that he had been declared legally dead, he had been replaced in the Royal Academy of Sciences, his wife had remarried, and all his possessions had been distributed to his heirs. It required lengthy litigation to correct the latter problem, but intervention of the king soon gave him back a seat in the academy, and he remarried and lived apparently happily for another 21 years.

He wrote Voyage dans les mers de l'Inde, fait par ordre du Roi, à l'occasion du passage de Vénus, sur le disque du Soleil, le 6 juin 1761 & le 3 du même mois 1769 par M. Le Gentil, de l'académie royale des sciences. Imprimé par ordre de sa Majesté, two volumes, Paris 1779 and 1781.