Activities and Achievements of the Double Star Committee of the Socié té Astronomique de France

In a synthesis article (see ref. below), the double star expert Paul COUTEAU put the work of French pioneers of double stars observation in the perspective of the double star work carried in the world. After Antoine Yvon VILLARCEAU and Camille FLAMMARION, one prominent pioneer of double stars was Robert JONCKHEERE (1888toiles Doubles, Maurice DURUY (1894le with a 40-cm and later a 60-cm telescope at Le Rouret (Alpes1995) had started the measurement of double stars as an amateur. He was granted permission to measure them with the 38-cm of the Paris Observatory and made an impressive number of measures during his long 2006) made double star observations for the book which was then in preparation under the title La revue des constellations. Their measures remained unpublished; but publication of the measures made by Robert SAGOT is in preparation. At about the same time, the neurology professor Jacques LE BEAU (1908toiles doubles visuelles. That book triggered the interest of more amateur astronomers for double stars and indirectly influenced the creation of a group of double star observers which was transformed into the Commission des É toiles Doubles