Edmond Modeste Lescarbault (1814, Châteaudun – 1894, Orgères-en-Beauce), was a French medical doctor and an amateur astronomer, best remembered for his 1859 supposed observation of the non-existent planet Vulcan.
He graduated and obtained his diploma from the University of Paris 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. Most likely what he had seen was not Vulcan but a sunspot.
His manuscripts, including correspondence with Camille Flammarion, are kept in the Bibliothèque Municipale in Châteaudun. He died in 1894.
See also
References
- "A Promised Transit of Vulcan", The Spectator, vol. 52, p. 336, 15 March 1879
- Levenson, Thomas (2015). The hunt for Vulcan: ... and how Albert Einstein destroyed a planet, discovered relativity, and deciphered the universe (First ed.). ISBN 9780812998986.
- "Recherche - Base de données Léonore". Archives nationales - Base Léonore. Retrieved 13 September 2021.