Monsieur Lacaille,
Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, formerly sometimes spelled de la Caille, (French: [lakaj]; 15 March 1713 – 21 March 1762)[1] was a French astronomer. His desire to determine the distances of the planets trigonometrically, using the longest possible baseline, led him to propose, in 1750, an expedition to the Cape of Good Hope. This was officially sanctioned by Roland-Michel Barrin de La Galissonière. There, he constructed an observatory on the shore of Table Bay with the support of the Dutch Governor Ryk Tulbagh. The primary result of his two-year stay was observed nearly 10,000 southern stars, the production of which required observing every night for over a year.
