Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille

French astronomer

  • Fame59.5
  • Momentum39.8
  • Wikipedia3.3K
Source-basedBreakout
Lived 1713–1762, aged 49France
  • Wikipedia
    63 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    1713–1762
    Aged 49
  • Awards
    1
    recognised work
Summary
Updated 2026-06-08

He named 14 constellations — more than any other single astronomer — and catalogued over 10,000 stars from the southern tip of Africa with a handheld refractor.

Biography

About

Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille was a French astronomer and geodesist born 15 March 1713. From 1750 to 1754, he traveled to the Cape of Good Hope in present-day South Africa to study the southern sky, a hemisphere largely unmapped by European science. Using a refracting telescope, he observed over 10,000 stars and went on to name 14 of the 88 constellations recognized today. He died 21 March 1762, six days after his forty-ninth birthday.

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By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Rising
59.5
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum39.8
Historical22.8
Now attention64.9
Source confidence60.0
Completeness70.0
Global rank
Country rank
Category rank
Receipts

Sources

  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence