Astronomer became an ecological criminal

ÉtienEneuopold Touvelot left two heritage, one worthy of admiration and admiration, one that made him receive disdain and criticism. As a French amateur insect, his biggest mistake was to bring lymantria dispar, also known as Gypsy butterfly to North America, the abuse species continued to devastate the forests to this day. But Trouvelot is also a painter and astronomer with the ability to master the brush and telescope to create thousands of impressive illustrations. His universe illustrated the most accurate product at that time, according to Amusing Planet.

Trouvelot was born in 1827 in Aisne north of France. There was little information about his first time, it seemed that he participated in the alliance, making him an enemy of the State after Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte coup in 1851. To avoid being arrested, Trouvelot fled to the US and his family, finally settled in Medford, Massachusetts. As an enthusiastic painter and astronomer, he cultivated himself through passion for painting and science before redirecting attention to the field of insects.

Trouvelot started raising silkworms. When the civil war ended in 1865, he raised a million small silkworms on 2 hectares of forest land behind the house. However, this worm is very susceptible to disease, so Trouvelot decided to experiment with healthier butterflies. This is a native species in Europe specializing in eating foliage. Around 1867, Trouvelot brought a few butterfly larvae to his home in Medford and started raising them in wooden forests. In a thunderstorm night, the strong wind torn the net surrounding thousands of samples, creating conditions for the foam butterflies to escape.

As a indigenous animal in temperate forests in Western Europe, porous butterfly is a famous harmful object. They are very cute, can eat leaves all the trees, finally causing the tree to die. Today, they still devour thousands of square kilometers in the northeast of the United States every year, threatening 3,000 species of wood and shrubs. In the past half century, foam butterflies have destroyed more than 33.6 million hectares of forest with wide range from the Atlantic coast to the center of Wisconsin.

The silk is created by the butterfly butterfly and Touvelot loses all the interest in insects. In 1870, he left the farm and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. In October of the same year, a strong solar storm caused the aurora to appear in another low parallel. Inspired by the rare phenomenon, Trouvelot uses stone printing skills to create the illustration of the Massachusetts night sky illuminated by green and blue light strips.

Trouvelot’s painting and scientific talent quickly attracted the attention of Joseph Winlock, Director of Harvard Observatory (HCO). Winlock invited Trouvelot to be admitted to the hospital. During his time in Cambridge, Trouvelot created hundreds of details of astronomical object, using the 38 -cm telescope of HCO as well as the 15 cm telescope at his home.

To simulate exactly what observed, Trouvelot applies the classical umbrella technique of the artists. He placed a round glass panel engraved with a square network in the middle of the telescope, allowing the image release on the network. After that, he meticulously sketched an astronomical object on the corresponding network on paper.

Realizing the observation talent of Trouvelot, the manufacturer of telescopes Alvan Clark & ​​Sons allows him to use the refractive telescope under construction at the Cambridge for the Leanter McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia. In 1875, he was invited to the US Navy Observatory (USNO) in Washington, DC, where he worked with the largest refractive telescope in the world at that time (71 cm). His reputation was strengthened when he officially participated in the task of recording the total solar eclipse in 1878 of USNO.

Trouvelot has a special passion for the solar phenomena and among the first to study a special version of the black mark. His research on this topic was published in American Academy of Arts and Sciences, marking an important contribution in the field. Throughout his life, Trouvelot published 50 scientific articles and created about 7,000 high quality astronomical illustrations. His illustrations were created a decade before the color image was born, which was the most accurate illustration of the solar system at the time.

In 1882, Trouvelot returned to France, where he was astronenton by the Valz Academy of Astronomy. He joined the MeonDon observatory in Paris, continuing observations of the solar system. Trouvelot died in 1895 in Meon, unaware of the ecological disaster that his foam butterfly experiment caused in North America. When the Massachusetts government grasped the scale of the disaster, Trouvelot has long passed away.