Connaissance des Temps

History

Connaissance des temps is the oldest such publication in the world, published without interruption since 1679 (originally named La Connoissance des Temps ou calendrier et éphémérides du lever & coucher du Soleil, de la Lune & des autres planètes), when the astronomer Jean Picard (1620–1682) obtained from the King the right to create the annual publication. The first eight editors were:

• 1679–1684: Jean Picard (1620–1682)
• 1685–1701: Jean Le Fèvre (1650–1706)
• 1702–1729: Jacques Lieutaud (1660–1733)
• 1730–1734: Louis Godin (1704–1760)
• 1735–1759: Giovanni Domenico Maraldi (1709–1788)
• 1760–1775: Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande (1732–1807)
• 1776–1787: Edme-Sébastien Jeaurat (1725–1803)
• 1788–1794: Pierre Méchain (1744–1804)

Other notable astronomers who edited the Connaissance des temps were:

• Alexis Bouvard (1767–1843)
• Bureau des Longitudes
  • Rodolphe Radau (1835–1911)
  • Marie Henri Andoyer (1862–1929)

Among the other prestigious national astronomical ephemerides, The Nautical Almanac was established in Great Britain in 1767, and the Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch in 1776.