[X] My Assistant

[Paolo]

Audouin Dollfus, one of the most important European planetary astronomer of the 20th century died Friday aged 85
http://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv....e-francais.html
he was one of the last great visual observers of the planets, discovered Saturn's satellite Janus and, by comparing their polarization of light predicted that Mercury would look similar to the Moon. In the 1950s moreover he made stratospheric balloon flights to observe the spectra of Mars and Venus in order to detect the signature of water.
In the 1960s and 1970s he cooperated with European space agencies on early studies of planetary mission (see my article ESRO and the deep space) and had at least one instrument (a photopolarimeter) flown on Soviet Mars missions.

[vikingmars]

We miss him a lot. He was a good friend, had a profound sense of relationships, was very generous and helped a lot of people during is life, including myself for the launching of the Planetology section activities at Societe Astronomique de France (our National astronomical Society). He was a very, very talented astronomer, able to build his own science instruments, was oftenly visited by NASA people in his office at Meudon Observatory for his life-long experience of Martian climate and seasons, and was most revered in France as the last discoverer of a Saturnian satellite visually through a telescope (Janus). Among his most talented students I know well are : Serge Brunier (now Astrophotographer in extreme conditions), Gilles Dawidowicz (now Curator of the Triel Observatory near Paris) and Nathalie Cabrol (now at NASA-Ames, discoverer and promoter of the Gusev crater MER landing site)...