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Honoré Flaugergues (May 16 1755–November 26 1835 or November 20 1830) was a French astronomer.
(Note, different sources give different years of death).
He discovered the "Great Comet of 1811" (C/1811 F1), and independently co-discovered the "Great Comet of 1807" (C/1807 R1).
In attempting to measure the rotation period of Mars, he noted inconsistencies in timing of yellow-colored features and concluded he was seeing atmospheric features rather than surface features. Therefore, some credit him with the discovery of dust clouds on Mars, however this is in dispute since his telescope was probably too small to accomplish this.
In addition to astronomy, he was active in medicine and archaeology, studying the maladies suffered by workers in the wool industry and organizing archaeological excavation at Alba-la-Romaine.
A crater on Mars is named after him.
External Links
- Short biography (http://cometography.com/biographies/flaugerguesh.html)
- Another biography with different death date (in French) (http://www.medarus.org/Ardeche/07celebr/07celTex/flaugergues.html)
- Description of Mars observations by Flaugergues (http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/onlinebks/mars/chap04.htm)