Auguste Charlois: 99 asteroids from Nice

The French astronomer who found Patientia straddled the switch from visual to photographic asteroid hunting.

Published 2026-10-23

Patientia is one of 99 asteroids discovered by Auguste Charlois at the Nice Observatory in southeastern France.^[3][2]

A fast start

Charlois, born in 1864, found his first asteroid, 267 Tirza, in 1887.^[3] He also photographed 433 Eros on the very night of its discovery by Gustav Witt, but did not act quickly enough before Witt announced the find.^[3]

Photography takes over

Charlois began searching in the era of visual detection. By 1891, Max Wolf had pioneered the use of astrophotography to speed up discoveries.^[3][5] Both Wolf and Charlois went on to discover far more asteroids than would have been feasible visually.^[3]

Recognition

• 1889: the Valz Prize from the French Academy of Sciences for calculating asteroid orbits.^[3]
• 1899: the Prix Jules Janssen, the highest award of the French astronomical society — the same year he discovered Patientia.^[3][2]

A tragic end

In 1910, at 45, Charlois was murdered by his former brother-in-law in a dispute over an inheritance; the killer was sentenced to hard labour for life.^[3] The asteroid 1510 Charlois, discovered at Nice in 1939, is named in his honour.^[3]

Numbered citations link to the sources list on the Patientia overview page.