Guillaume Le Gentil

Guillaume Joseph Hyacinthe Jean-Baptiste Le Gentil de la Galaisière was a French astronomer who discovered several nebulae and was appointed to the Royal Academy of Sciences. He wrote on the estimation of the distance from the Earth to the Sun using solar transits, made unsuccessful attempts to observe the 1761 and 1769 transits of Venus from India during an 11-year journey from France, and wrote a popular account of his adventures and misadventures during the journey.