Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille
French astronomer
- Fame59.5
- Momentum39.8
- Scientists rank#183
Source-basedBreakout
- Fame59.5
- Momentum39.8
- Scientists rank#183
- Wikipedia3.3K
Lived 1713–1762, aged 49France
FranceSummary
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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The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.
Fame
Rising59.5
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum39.8
Historical22.8
Now attention0.7
Source confidence60.0
Completeness70.0
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- WikidataHigh confidencewikidata · wikidata.org
- WikipediaHigh confidencewikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Pantheon 2.0High confidencedatabase · pantheon.world
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