Ferdinand Quénisset

Early life and career

Scientific achievements

• Co-discovered comet C/1893 N1 Rordame-Quenisset on 9 January 1893.
• First to photograph zodiacal light in 1902.
• Discovered comet C/1911 S2 on 23 September 1911.
• First to photograph details of the surface of Venus in 1911.
• Took nearly 6,000 astronomical photographs and more than 1,500 meteorological photographs , many of which were published in the Bulletin of the Société astronomique de France, the Comptes Rendus des séances de l’Académie des sciences, and other scientific publications. His most noteworthy meteorological photographs were published as individual plates in the book Les Nuages et les Systèmes nuageux. Quénisset also made numerous drawings of Venus, Mars, Jupiter and the Moon.
• First to successfully record Mercury's albedo features photographically.
• First in France to photograph Pluto, in Spring and Autumn 1930.
• Delivered numerous conferences on astronomy in France and in other countries.

  Awards and honors

• 1899 - Prix des Dames from the Société Astronomique de France.
• 1901 - Officier d'académie by decree of the Ministre de l'instruction publique et des beaux-arts of 12 April 1901.
• 1911 - Donohoe Comet-Medal from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, for his discovery of the comet C/1911 S2 on 23 September 1911.
• 1923 - Honorary member of the :fr:Société astronomique de Genève|Société astronomique Flammarion de Genève, for his contribution to the establishment of that association.
• 1926 - Médaille Commémorative from the Société Astronomique de France.
• 1932 - Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur on 29 December 1932.
• 1933 - First Prize in the Concours photographie de nuages of the Office National Météorologique.
• 1934 - Valz Prize from the French Academy of Sciences for his observations of comets.
• 1938 - Prix Gabrielle et Camille Flammarion from the Société Astronomique de France.
• 1945 - Prix Dorothéa Klumpke-Isaac Roberts from the Société Astronomique de France.
• 1973 - Quenisset impact crater on Mars named in his honor by the International Astronomical Union.

  Publications

Author

• Les phototypes sur papier au gélatinobromure.
• Applications de la photographie à la physique et à la météorologie.
• Manuel pratique de photographie astronomique à l'usage des amateurs photographes.
• Instruction pour la photographie des nuages,.
• Annuaire astronomique et météorologique Camille Flammarion.

  Contributor

• Cours de météorologie à l'usage des candidats au brevet de météorologiste militaire. 2ème Partie, Les Nuages et les Systèmes nuageux: Planches.
• Atlas international des nuages et des types de ciels. I. Atlas général.