Antoniadi had a somewhat mixed career. He was of Greek origin, but was born at Constantinople, in Turkey, on 10 March 1870. In 1893 he went to France as assistant to Camile Flammarion at the Juvisy Observatory, and in 1909 became assistant astronomer at the Observatoire de Meudon, near Paris. He took French nationality and remained in France for the rest of his life.
Antoniadi was probably the best planetary observer of his time, and made full use of the 33-inch (83 cm) refractor at Meudon. He paid close attention to Mercury and Mars, and drew maps of their surfaces. His map of Mercury was inaccurate, though this was not Antoniadi's fault; he believed the rotation period to be synchronous with the revolution period (88 days), a conclusion now known to be wrong. His charts of Mars were excellent, and his nomenclature is still used, albeit in modified form; he was a strong opponent of the ‘canal network’ drawn by Lowell (q.v.) and others. For many years he was Director of the Mars...
Bibliography
Abetti, G. (1970) Antoniadi, Engène M. Dict. Sci. Biogr., vol 1, p. 172.
Antoniadi, E. M. (1930) La Planète Mars. Paris: Gauthier-Villars. English translation by P. Moore and K. Reid, Shaldon, 1975.
Antoniadi, E. M. (1934) La Planète Mercure et la Rotation des Satellites. Paris: Gauthier-Vilalrs English translation by P. Moore and K. Reid, Shaldon, 1974.
Antoniadi, E. M. (1934) L'Astronomie Egyptienne. Paris: Gauthier-Villars.
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Moore, P. (1997). Antoniadi, eugenios (1870–1944). In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_13
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