Camille Flammarion
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Nicolas Camille Flammarion (February 26, 1842 – June 3, 1925) was a French astronomer and author. He was usually credited as Camille Flammarion.
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[edit] Life
Camille Flammarion was born in Montigny-le-Roi, Haute-Marne, France. He was the brother of Ernest Flammarion (1846-1936), founder of the Groupe Flammarion publishing house.
He was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fiction novels, and several works about Spiritualism and related topics. He also published the magazine L'Astronomie, starting in 1882. He maintained a private observatory at Juvisy-sur-Orge, France.
He was a founder and the first president of the Société Astronomique de France, which originally had its own independent journal, BSAF (Bulletin de la Société astronomique de France), first published in 1887. In January, 1895, after 13 volumes of L'Astronomie and 8 of BSAF, the two merged, making L'Astronomie the Bulletin of the Societé. The 1895 volume of the combined journal was numbered 9, to preserve the BSAF volume numbering, but this had the consequence that volumes 9 to 13 of L'Astronomie can each refer to two different publications, five years apart of each other.[1]
He was the first to suggest the names Triton and Amalthea for moons of Neptune and Jupiter, respectively, although these names were not officially adopted until many decades later.[2]
Because of his scientific background, he approached spiritualism and reincarnation from the viewpoint of the scientific method, writing, "It is by the scientific method alone that we may make progress in the search for truth. Religious belief must not take the place of impartial analysis. We must be constantly on our guard against illusions."[3]. He was chosen to speak at the funerals of Allan Kardec, founder of Spiritism, on April 2, 1869, when he re-affirmed that "spiritism is not a religion but a science" (op. cit.).
His spiritualism studies influenced also some of his science fiction. Other than that his writing about other worlds adhered fairly closely to then current ideas in evolutionary theory and astronomy.
The enigmatic "Flammarion Woodcut" first appeared in an 1888 Flammarion publication.
His second wife was Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion, also a noted astronomer.
He died in Juvisy-sur-Orge.
[edit] References
- ^ Which l'Astronomie?
- ^ Camille Flammarion
- ^ in "Death and Its Mystery", 1921, 3 volumes. Translated by Latrobe Carroll (1923, T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd. London: Adelphi Terrace.). Partial online version at Manifestations of the Dead in Spiritistic Experiments
[edit] Bibliography
- La pluralité des mondes habités (The Plurality of Inhabited Worlds), 1862.
- Real and Imaginary Worlds, 1864.
- Lumen, 1867.
- Récits de l'infini, 1872.
- L'atmosphère: météorologie populaire, 1888.
- Astronomie populaire, 1880. His best-selling work, it was translated into English as Popular Astronomy in 1894.
- Les Étoiles et les Curiosités du Ciel, 1882. A supplement of the L'Astronomie Populaire works. An observer's handbook of its day.
- Uranie, 1890.
- La planète Mars et ses conditions d'habitabilité, 1892.
- La Fin du Monde (The End of the World), 1893, is a science fiction novel about a comet colliding with the Earth, followed by several million years leading up to the gradual death of the planet. It has recently been brought back into print as Omega: The Last Days of the World.
[edit] Honors
Named after him
- Flammarion crater on the Moon.
- Flammarion crater on Mars.
[edit] Quotations
"What intelligent being, what being capable of responding emotionally to a beautiful sight, can look at the jagged, silvery lunar crescent trembling in the azure sky, even through the weakest of telescopes, and not be struck by it in an intensely pleasurable way, not feel cut off from everyday life here on earth and transported toward that first stop on the celestial journeys? What thoughtful soul could look at brilliant Jupiter with its four attendant satellites, or splendid Saturn encircled by its mysterious ring, or a double star glowing scarlet and sapphire in the infinity of night, and not be filled with a sense of wonder? Yes, indeed, if humankind - from humble farmers in the fields and toiling workers in the cities to teachers, people of independent means, those who have reached the pinnacle of fame or fortune, even the most frivolous of society women - if they knew what profound inner pleasure await those who gaze at the heavens, then France, nay, the whole of Europe, would be covered with telescopes instead of bayonets, thereby promoting universal happiness and peace." - Camille Flammarion, French astronomer, 1880
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