Pierre Mechain

Sofia Quinteros

Dacey

Astronomy Honors

Period 4

Astronomer Biography: Pierre Mechain

                Pierre Mechain was born in Laon, France, on August 16th, 1744. He died on September 20th, 1804, in Spain at the age of 60. The French astronomer and mathematician was the son of a ceiling designer in France. Ever since Pierre was young, he showed interest in the sciences and mathematics, specifically physics. The young boy wasn’t able to pursue these interests right away because of his family’s poor financial position. He worked whatever other jobs he could get, like proofreading or assistant hydrographer. Through these jobs, Pierre Mechain was able to make friends in the astronomy field, such as Charles Messier. Later on in his life, he produced maps of different parts of the world and attended the French Academy of Sciences. Pierre published astronomical works and scientific papers.

                Pierre Mechain became a very accomplished astronomer by discovering many deep sky objects. He and Charles Messier devoted much of their time to observing and trying to discover more objects of the universe. Pierre’s specialty was observing comets; he was known as what some people would call a “comet hunter”. Mechain had originally discovered 8 comets, and co-discovered 3 comets. His love for finding comets served as a gateway to his discoveries of deep sky objects. In the year of 1781, Pierre Mechain discovered two comets in the same year. This was an impressive accomplishment, but to top it, he also calculated the orbits of many comets. These calculations were the ones that caused him to get elected into the very prestigious “Academie des Sciences”. In just the years of 1779-1782, Pierre Mechain discovered over 30 deep sky objects, and most of them were original discoveries. Much of Pierre Mechain’s work was documented and included into Charles Messeir’s famous catalog. This catalog contained information about all different clusters and nebulae.

                Many of Pierre Mechain’s discoveries are still observed by modern day astronomers. The numerous deep sky objects can be found in charts all over the place. After Mechain, Delambre, another astronomer, kept Mechains work alive and continued to add and modify the content. Mechains work always remain a part of history and continue to be a part of astronomers work in the future.