page_title: Pierre Rousseau
section_title: Astronomy
hierarchical_section_title: Pierre Rousseau / Biography / Astronomy
caption_attribution_description: Ελληνικά: Αστεροσκοπείο MeudonEnglish: Meudon observatory
context_page_description: Pierre Jean-Baptiste Rousseau was a French essayist, epistemologist, astronomer and journalist who authored numerous popular science essays and articles. He helped promote hard science to the general public and advocated the development of fundamental scientific research in a "post-war disenchantment".
context_section_description: When asked to transfer to the Lycée Félix Faure of Beauvaisin 1935, Rousseau resigned from the Éducation Nationale without hesitation to join the Meudon Observatory as "Astronome Stagiaire au Service du Méridien" ("Trainee Astronomer at the Meridian Study"). At the time, French astronomy was under-developed compared to other western nations at the time (namely British, North American and Russian). The total staff of astronomers barely reached 150 in France, and the modernization project of the observatory, set in the Château de Meudon had just started; feeders and racks of the stables where the laboratories were installed had not yet been removed.
  Audouin Dollfus, one of the most eminent astronomer in France, son of Charles Dollfus (creator of the Musée de l'Air and Honorary Astronomer at the Paris Observatory), remembers Pierre Rousseau as a young astronomer:
  "Before the War, we were only a fistful. Pierre Rousseau was a modest person, almost too modest, deep, an excellent writer and an excellent popularizer. His books on astronomy are admirable! I read them avidly. To illustrate his Mars, Mysterious Earth, I think he obtained the images from the telescope of Antoniadi himself."
  In 1939, Rousseau was enlisted and stationed in an artillery battery unit in Lorraine . He writes in Le monde des étoiles (The World of Stars - 1950); "Combien de fois l’auteur de ce livre ne l’a-t-il pas contemplé [Jupiter.]… pendant la dernière guerre, avec la modeste « binoculaire » de sa batterie ?" (How many times the author of this book contemplated, during the last war, [Jupiter] with his modest binoculars ?).
  His first book on astronomy (L'Exploration du Ciel - Sky Exploration) was published the same year, at 8.0000 copies. It shows, early on, Rousseau's distinctive love for anecdotes and a particular care to underline the work of scientists and the importance of the history of science.
  While focusing particularly on astronomy and related sciences, he was also interested in epistemology, astronautics, geology, nuclear physics, and electricity. His last book, L'avenir de la Terre (The Future of Earth) was published in 1977 by Nouvelles Éditions Latines.
caption: Dome of the Meudon Observatory installed on top of the former Château de Meudon.
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