Abstract
Joseph-Henri Bigay began his career in 1930 as an elementary-school teacher. But at a young age, he became an amateur astronomer and regularly observed variable stars, communicating his results to the French Association of Variable Stars Observers (AFOEV). In collaboration with Antoine Brun, he built the first Schmidt telescope operational in France (1939). During the Second World War, he became a professional astronomer at Lyon Observatory, where he carried out investigations on the photometry of galaxies, infrared photography, and photoelectric photometry. He also ground and polished the mirrors of several telescopes, up to 60 cm diameter. From 1955, he taught astrophysics at Lyon University, and, in 1966, he succeeded Jean Dufay as director of Lyon Observatory.
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References
Becker, R.M. (1983). Joseph-Henri Bigay (1910–1982). Bulletin de l’Association Française des Observateurs d’Etoiles Variables 23. https://bibnum.obspm.fr/ark:/11287/3ThNQ
Bigay, J.H. 1945. Description d’un Télescope de Schmidt de 380mm de Diamètre, Ouvert a f/1,6, Installé à L’Observatoire de Lyon. L’Astronomie 59: 137–140.
———. 1951. Photométrie photographique des nébuleuses extragalactiques. Annales d’Astrophysique 14: 319–382.
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Gomas, Y., Nitschelm, C.H.R. (2022). Bigay, Joseph-Henri. In: Nicholson, P.D., Bartlett, J.L. (eds) Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0738-1_100784-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0738-1_100784-1
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