Background
Eugène Joseph Delporte was born on January 10, 1882 in Genappe, Belgium.
Asteroid 2101 Adonis.
Asteroid 1217 Maximiliana.
Asteroid 1221 Amor.
Asteroid 2101 Adonis.
Asteroid 1217 Maximiliana.
Asteroid 1221 Amor.
Eugène Joseph Delporte was born on January 10, 1882 in Genappe, Belgium.
Delporte graduated from Brussels University and obtained the doctorate in physics and mathematics with high honors in 1903, at the age of twenty-one.
Delporte joined the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uecle as a volunteer assistant. In 1904 he became assistant, in 1909 associate astronomer, and in 1923 astronomer. He was appointed to the directorship of the observatory in 1936 and retired from official duty in 1947.
From 1903 to 1919 Delporte was attached to the department of meridian astronomy. He made thousands of transit observations of reference stars, among them 3,533 stars for the zones +21° and +22° of the Carte du del, and conducted careful investigations of the errors of the divisions of the meridian circle. He determined the difference of longitude between the observatories of Paris and Uccle in 1910 and in 1920, and he supervised the installation of the time service at the observatory.
In 1919 Delporte transferred to the department of equatorials and dedicated himself to systematic observations of comets and asteroids. These observations were first performed visually with the thirty-eight-centimeter Cooke refractor; but about 1925, when first the thirty-centimeter-aperture Zeiss astrograph and then the double Zeiss astrograph with forty-centimeter-aperture objectives were installed, a definite investigation of these bodies was organized. The first discovery was the planet Belgica. It was followed by many more discoveries, including Amor and Adonis, which approach nearest to the earth. Delporte’s name is also linked with the independent discovery of the comet Dutoit-Neujmin-Delporte. New techniques for accurate determination of position were investigated; and the precise positions were sent regularly to the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut at Heidelberg, where they were used in the determinations of orbits.
In 1930 Delporte edited two volumes for the In-ternational Astronomical Union entitled Scientific Delimitation of Constellations, with text, maps, and celestial atlas. These volumes fixed the limits of constellations for the entire sky.
Delporte was actively interested in expanding the work of the observatory. The institution was provided with a reflecting telescope one meter in aperture, the double astrograph with a forty-centimeter aperture, and an Askania meridian circle with a nineteen-centimeter aperture. He was also responsible for providing the Cooke visual refractor, which had an aperture of thirty-eight centimeters, with a Zeiss objective forty-five centimeters in diameter.
He was a member of the National Committee on Astronomy from its founding in 1919, its vice-chairman in 1930, and its chairman from 1949 until his death. He served as president of the Commission on the Observation of Planets, Comets and Satellites and Ephemerides of the Internation Astronomical Union. He was also secretary-editor of the journal Ciel el terre of the Belgian Astronomical Society.
After his official retirement he continued to examine plates of asteroids at the observatory, and it was while pursuing this task that he died suddenly.
Eugène Joseph Delporte went down in history as a noted astronomer who discovered sixty-six asteroids. Notable discoveries include 1221 Amor and the Apollo asteroid 2101 Adonis. He also discovered some comets as well, including periodic comet 57P/du Toit-Neujmin-Delporte.
For his scientific contribution Delporte received several prizes from the Royal Academy of Sciences of Belgium.
Delporte was a corresponding member of the Bureau des Longitudes in Paris, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, and an associate member of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Delporte was an enthusiastic observer, and he inspired many younger astronomers who are continuing his work.
