| Photo courtesy Observatoire de Paris | |
| Bernard Ferdinand Lyot | ||
| 27 February 1897 | 1947 Bruce Medalist | 2 April 1952 |
After studying engineering at l’École Supérieure d'Électricité in Paris, Bernard Lyot assisted the physicist Alfred Pérot at l'École Polytechnique. During this period he also studied mathematics, physics, and chemistry at the University of Paris. From 1920 - 1952 he worked at the Meudon Observatory, which became part of the Paris Observatory in 1926. There he was encouraged by its director, Henri Deslandres. An expert in optics, Lyot constructed a polariscope of unprecedented sensitivity to investigate the polarization of light reflected from the planets. Making many observations at the Pic du Midi, he found that the lunar surface behaves like volcanic dust and that Mars has sandstorms, and he investigated the atmospheres of the other planets. Starting in 1929 he improved his polarimeter and developed an optical system that eliminated scattered light to create the coronagraph, a device which allows observation of the solar corona without an eclipse. By 1931 he was obtaining photographs of the corona and its spectrum. He developed monochromatic polarizing filters with transmission only one angstrom wide for his solar studies. He found new spectral lines in the corona, and he made the first motion pictures of solar prominences.
Presentation of Bruce medal
Wilson, Ralph E., PASP 59, 53-58 (1947).
Other awards
French Academy of Sciences, Lalande Medal, 1928.
Société Astronomique de France, Janssen Prize, 1932.
Franklin Institute, Potts medal, 1942.
National Academy of Sciences, Henry Draper Medal, 1951
Royal Astronomical Society, Gold medal, 1939, presented by H.C. Plummer, MNRAS 99, 538-40 (1939).
Biographical materials
d’Azambuja, L., “l'Oeuvre de Bernard Lyot,” l’Astronomie 66, 265-277 (1952).
Bélanger, Steve, Astronomes Amateur [in French]
High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research
Bitterman, Jay, Lake County Astronomical Society
Club Astronomique du Val de Loir [in French]
de Broglie, Louis, Notice sur la vie et l’oeuvre de Bernard Lyot; lecture faite en la seance annuelle des prix du 8 decembre 1969 (Palais de l’Institut, Paris, 1969).
Dollfus, A., “Bernard Lyot, l’Invention du Coronographe et l’Étude de la Couronne: Un Cinquantenaire,” l’Astronomie 97, 107-28 & 315-29 (1983).
Gros, Monique, “Bernard Lyot (1897-1952),” l’Astronomie 112, 8-12 (1998).
Le Coultre, M. F, Bernard Lyot et l’Astrophysique. Brochure, 1955.
L[évy?], J[acques?], Le web de l’Humanité, Bernard Lyot: l'inventeur d'éclipses artificielles
Lévy, Jacques, Dictionary of Scientific Biography 8, 581-82.
Obituaries
Chevalier, A., Comptes Rendus 234, 1501-05 (1952).
Danjon, A., Ann. d’Astrophys. 15, 75 (1952).
Menzel, Donald H., Sky & Telescope 11, 193 (1952).
P[laskett], H.H., Observatory 72, 157-59 (1952).
Wilkins, H. Percy, Observatory 72, 241-42 (1952).
More obituaries
Photos
at the eyepiece of the Baillaud telescope in 1937
Département d’Astronomie Solaire de l’Observatoire de Paris Laboratoire de Physique du Soleil et de l’Héliosphère (several)
Les Amis du Planétarium de Reims
Named after him
Minor Planet #2452 Lyot
Bernard Lyot Telescope, Pic du Midi
l'observatoire Bernard Lyot
The Lyot Project, American Museum of Natural History
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JST 2005-05-01 |
