Born Bordeaux, Gironde, France, 1 October 1633
Died Pondicherry, (India), 2 April 1693
French Jesuit missionary Jean Richaud made the first astronomical discoveries from India using a telescope. In 1689, he observed that the stars α Centauri and α Crucis are in fact double. (The binary nature of α Crucis had been independently noted by fellow Jesuit Jean de Fontenay, at the Cape of Good Hope, 4 years earlier.)
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Rao, N. Kameswara, A. Vagiswari, and Christina Louis (1984). “Father J. Richaud and Early Telescope Observations in India.” Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India 12: 81.
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Hockey, T. (2014). Richaud, Jean. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_1168
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