Jean-Philippe Loys de Cheseaux


Jean-Philippe Loys de Cheseaux, also written "Loÿs de Cheseaux" was an astronomer from Lausanne in Switzerland. In 1746 he presented a list of nebulae, eight of which were his own new discoveries, to the Académie Française des Sciences. The list was noted privately by Le Gentil in 1759, but only made public in 1892 by Guillaume Bigourdan. De Cheseaux was among the first to state, in its modern form, what would later be known as Olbers' paradox.
De Cheseaux discovered two comets:
De Cheseaux also did some little-known research into Biblical chronology, attempting to date the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth by analysing astronomical observations in the Book of Daniel. This work was published posthumously in Mémoires posthumes de M. de Cheseaux.
The spelling "Chéseaux" is wrong: "Cheseaux" refers to the village of the same name, near Lausanne.

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