Auguste Charlois


Auguste Honoré Charlois was a French astronomer who discovered 99 asteroids while working at the Nice Observatory in southeastern France.

Asteroid Discovery

His first discovery was the asteroid 267 Tirza in 1887. He photographed 433 Eros on the very night of its discovery by Gustav Witt, but was not able to act quickly enough before Witt announced his find.
Although he started searching for asteroids in the era of visual detection, by 1891 Max Wolf had pioneered the use of astrophotography to drastically speed up the rate of detection of asteroids, and both Wolf and Charlois separately discovered far more asteroids than would have been feasible by visual detection. In 1899, Charlois received the Prix Jules Janssen, the highest award of the Société astronomique de France, the French astronomical society, and was also awarded the Valz Prize by the French Academy of Sciences in 1889 for his work on calculating asteroid orbits.

Murder

At the age of 46, he was murdered by Gabriel Brengues, the brother of his first wife, Jeanne Charlois and husband to the sister of his second wife, Marie Brengues, over an inheritance by the death of Jeanne. The man was found guilty and given a life sentence of hard labor in New Caledonia.

Memorial

The asteroid 1510 Charlois, discovered by André Patry at Nice Observatory in 1939, was named in his honour.

List of discovered minor planets

267 TirzaMay 27, 1887
272 AntoniaFebruary 4, 1888
277 ElviraMay 3, 1888
282 ClorindeJanuary 28, 1889
283 EmmaFebruary 8, 1889
284 AmaliaMay 29, 1889
285 ReginaAugust 3, 1889
289 NenettaMarch 10, 1890
293 BrasiliaMay 20, 1890
294 FeliciaJuly 15, 1890
296 PhaëtusaAugust 19, 1890
297 CaeciliaSeptember 9, 1890
298 BaptistinaSeptember 9, 1890
300 GeraldinaOctober 3, 1890
302 ClarissaNovember 14, 1890
305 GordoniaFebruary 16, 1891
307 NikeMarch 5, 1891
310 MargaritaMay 16, 1891
311 ClaudiaJune 11, 1891
312 PierrettaAugust 28, 1891

357 NininaFebruary 11, 1893
358 ApolloniaMarch 8, 1893
359 GeorgiaMarch 10, 1893
360 CarlovaMarch 11, 1893
361 BononiaMarch 11, 1893
362 HavniaMarch 12, 1893
363 PaduaMarch 17, 1893
364 IsaraMarch 19, 1893
365 CordubaMarch 21, 1893
366 VincentinaMarch 21, 1893
367 AmicitiaMay 19, 1893
368 HaideaMay 19, 1893
370 ModestiaJuly 14, 1893
371 BohemiaJuly 16, 1893
372 PalmaAugust 19, 1893
373 MelusinaSeptember 15, 1893
374 BurgundiaSeptember 18, 1893
375 UrsulaSeptember 18, 1893
376 GeometriaSeptember 18, 1893
377 CampaniaSeptember 20, 1893

411 XantheJanuary 7, 1896
414 LiriopeJanuary 16, 1896
416 VaticanaMay 4, 1896
423 DiotimaDecember 7, 1896
424 GratiaDecember 31, 1896
425 CorneliaDecember 28, 1896
426 HippoAugust 25, 1897
427 GaleneAugust 27, 1897
429 LotisNovember 23, 1897
430 HybrisDecember 18, 1897
431 NepheleDecember 18, 1897
432 PythiaDecember 18, 1897
437 RhodiaJuly 16, 1898
438 ZeuxoNovember 8, 1898
441 BathildeDecember 8, 1898
451 PatientiaDecember 4, 1899
453 TeaFebruary 22, 1900
498 TokioDecember 2, 1902
537 PaulyJuly 7, 1904