Felix Chemla Lamèch

Felix Chemla Lamèch

(extended biography)

The lunar crater Lamèch is named after Felix Chemla Lamèch (1894-1962).

Career

According to the Wikipedia, Lamèch was born in Tunisia and studied meteorology at the University of Athens. He founded the Corfu Observatory, and several others in France, Africa, and South America.
 
 

Lunar Contributions

• Wilkins and Moore indicate in their Appendix on Lunar Maps (p. 352 of the 2nd edition) that Lamèch published an 18-inch map of the Moon in 1927 and a 61.5-cm one in 1934.
• Whitaker (p. 168) reproduces at reduced scale a "colourful" 24-inch diameter map of the Moon, published by Lamèch in 1956. The caption implies that it adhered to the then-current IAU nomenclature, but that the earlier maps had added more than 50 new names, only 8 of which were adopted by the IAU.
• Whitaker provides a list of Lamèch's new names on p. 228 of his 1999 book, and a somewhat longer list in a 2003 letter sent to Danny Caes. The latter list identifies Lamèch's names with the current IAU designations of the features, as well as identifying some of the people Lamèch was honoring. How Whitaker knew which person was being honored is unclear. Up to this day, Danny Caes (Ghent - Belgium) is still trying to detect the full names and biographies of the most obscure and most unknown persons mentioned in Lamèch's list.
• Whitaker also mentions in his book (p. 168) that Lamèch also published "many charts" locating the obscure elliptical features championed by Gabriel Delmotte.

Publications

Etude Monographique des plus grandes Formations Lunaires (1934)
De l'identite des Aires Elliptiques sur la Lune (1935)

References

Biographical Resources

• Félix Chemla Lamèch (Wikipedia)

Web Links

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