Edmond Modeste Lescarbault, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetEdmond Modeste Lescarbault
French astronomer and physician
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Châteaudun, Centre-Val de Loire, France
About Edmond Modeste Lescarbault
- Edmond Modeste Lescarbault (1814, Châteaudun - 1894), was a French doctor and an amateur astronomer, best remembered for his 1859 supposed observation of the non-existent planet Vulcan. He graduated and obtained his diploma in 1848.
- He then started to work as a doctor in Orgères-en-Beauce and worked there until 1872 (the street where he worked is now named after him).
- A keen astronomer, he built an observatory with a 3.75 inches (95 mm) refractor by his house and began correspondence with various scientific societies.
- On 26 March 1859 he saw a small object transiting the Sun and having heard of Le Verrier's theory of an intramercurial planet named Vulcan, he wrote a letter to the astronomer and was consequently visited by him in December 1859.
- Le Verrier announced the discovery on 2 January 1860.
- Lescarbault became Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur and was invited to appear before numerous learned societies. His manuscripts, including correspondence with Camille Flammarion, are kept in Bibliothèque Municipale in Châteaudun.
- He died in 1894.
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