Editing Bernard Lyot

{{Short description|French astronomer}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Bernard Lyot
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| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1897|02|27|df=y}}
| birth_place       = Paris, France
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1952|04|02|1897|02|27|df=y}}
| death_place       = Cairo, Egypt
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| residence         = 
| citizenship       = France
| nationality       = French
| fields            = [[Astronomy]]
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| alma_mater        = [[University of Paris]]
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| known_for         = [[Solar astronomy]]<br>[[Coronagraph]]<br>[[Lyot depolarizer]]<br>[[Lyot filter]]<br>[[Lyot stop]]
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| influences        = 
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| awards            = [[Lalande Prize]] {{small|(1928)}}<br>[[Prix Jules Janssen]] {{small|(1932)}}<br>[[Howard N. Potts Medal]] {{small|(1942)}}<br>[[Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society]] {{small|(1939)}}<br>[[Henry Draper Medal]] {{small|(1951)}}
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'''Bernard Ferdinand Lyot''' ({{IPA|fr|bɛʁnaʁ fɛʁdinɑ̃ ljo}}2 7 February 1897 in [[Paris]] &ndash; 2 April 1952 in [[Cairo]]) was a French [[astronomer]].

==Biography==
An avid reader of the works of [[Camille Flammarion]], he became a member of the [[Société Astronomique de France]]  in 1915 and made his first observations using the society's telescope on rue Serpente in Paris.<ref>[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1952LAstr..66..265D D'Azambuja, L. "L'œuvre de BERNARD LYOT,"] [[L'Astronomie (magazine)|L'Astronomie]], Vol. 66, p.266.</ref> He soon acquired a {{convert|4|in|mm|adj=on}} telescope and soon upgraded to a {{convert|6|in|mm|adj=on}}. From graduation in 1918 until 1929, he worked as a demonstrator at the [[École Polytechnique]] and studied [[engineering]], [[physics]], and [[chemistry]] at the [[University of Paris]].

From 1920 until his death he worked for the [[Meudon Observatory]], where in 1930 he earned the title of ''Joint Astronomer of the Observatory''. After gaining the title, he earned a reputation of being an expert of polarized and monochromatic light. Throughout the 1930s, he labored to perfect the [[coronagraph]], which he invented to observe the [[solar corona|corona]] without having to wait for a solar eclipse. Most of this work implied painstaking long observations at the [[Pic du Midi de Bigorre|Pic du Midi]] Observatory. It was an exceptionally good site, free of both air pollution and [[light pollution]] but it came with a disadvantage: In the interwar period access to the peak implied mountaineering skills and physical fitness, especially in winter when access was only gained with a long and tiresome [[ski touring]] trek on sealskin-fitted skis, a technique mastered by Lyot, a keen sportsman and mountaineer.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Comprendre - Histoire de l'observatoire du Pic du Midi |url=https://promenade.imcce.fr/fr/pages5/545.html#th5 |access-date=2023-09-05 |website=promenade.imcce.fr|lang=fr}}</ref> Accommodation on site can only be described as spartan, before a powerline, a bigger refuge and a cablecar were built in the early 1950s. In 1938, he showed a movie <ref>{{Cite web |title=Flammes du soleil |publisher= CNRS Images |url=https://images.cnrs.fr/video/1348 |access-date=2023-09-05 |website=images.cnrs.fr |language=fr}}</ref> of the corona in action to the [[International Astronomical Union]]. In 1939, he was elected to the [[French Academy of Sciences]]. He became Chief Astronomer at the Meudon Observatory in 1943 and received the [[Bruce Medal]] in 1947.

Lyot was the President of the [[Société astronomique de France]], the French astronomical society, from 1945-1947.<ref>[[Société astronomique de France|List of presidents of the Société astronomique de France]]</ref>

He suffered a heart attack while returning from an eclipse expedition in Sudan and died on 2 April 1952, at the age of 55.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Bernard Lyot |url=https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.5.031424/full/ |journal=Physics Today |date=2017 |issue=2 |page=9320 |doi=10.1063/PT.5.031424 |bibcode=2017PhT..2017b9320. |access-date=8 February 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Observations and Achievements on Pic du Midi==
*Lunar soil behaves like volcanic dust.
*[[Mars]] has sandstorms.
*Improved his [[coronagraph]].
*Made [[motion pictures]] of [[solar prominence]]s and the [[solar corona|corona]].
*Found [[spectral lines]] in the corona.

==Inventions==
[[File:Téléscope Bernard Lyot.jpg|thumb|right|Telescope Bernard Lyot]]
* [[Coronagraph]]
* [[Lyot filter]]
* [[Lyot stop]]
* [[Lyot depolarizer]]

==Awards and honors==
'''Awards'''
* [[Lalande Prize]] from the [[French Academy of Sciences]]<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/brucemedalists/lyot/| title = The Bruce Medalists| accessdate = 18 December 2014| archive-date = 22 April 2001| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20010422115221/http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/brucemedalists/lyot/| url-status = dead}}</ref>
* [[Janssen Medal (French Academy of Sciences)|Janssen Medal]] from the [[French Academy of Sciences]] (1930)
* [[Prix Jules Janssen]], the highest award of the [[Société astronomique de France]](1932)
* [[Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society]] (1939)<ref>{{cite web|title=Winners of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society|url=http://www.ras.org.uk/awards-and-grants/awards/268|publisher=[[Royal Astronomical Society]]|accessdate=24 February 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525064844/http://www.ras.org.uk/awards-and-grants/awards/268|archivedate=25 May 2011}}</ref>
* [[Howard N. Potts Medal]] (1942)<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/brucemedalists/lyot/| title = The Bruce Medalists| accessdate = 18 December 2014| archive-date = 22 April 2001| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20010422115221/http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/brucemedalists/lyot/| url-status = dead}}</ref>
* [[Bruce Medal]] (1947)<ref>{{cite web|title=Past Winners of the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal|url=http://astrosociety.org/membership/awards/pastbruce.html|publisher=[[Astronomical Society of the Pacific]]|accessdate=24 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721092933/http://astrosociety.org/membership/awards/pastbruce.html|archive-date=21 July 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Henry Draper Medal]] of the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]] (1951)<ref name=Draper>{{cite web|title=Henry Draper Medal |url=http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/awards/henry-draper-medal.html |publisher=[[National Academy of Sciences]] |accessdate=24 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130126003930/http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/awards/henry-draper-medal.html |archivedate=26 January 2013 }}</ref>

'''Named for him'''
* [[Lyot (lunar crater)]].
* [[Lyot (Martian crater)]].
* [[Minor planet]] [[2452 Lyot]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyot, Bernard}}
[[Category:1897 births]]
[[Category:1952 deaths]]
[[Category:Scientists from Paris]]
[[Category:20th-century French astronomers]]
[[Category:20th-century French inventors]]
[[Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society]]
[[Category:Howard N. Potts Medal recipients]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Lalande Prize]]
[[Category:University of Paris alumni]]