![[Image of C. Huygens]](../../Pics/Hi-res/huygens_big.jpg)
Christiaan Huygens was a famous dutchman for his development of advanced
pendulum clocks. He also invented an improved type of 2-lense eyepieces, now
named after him, and constructed very long air telescopes of up to 250 feet
focal length. With these, he made important discoveries such as Jupiter's
equatorial bulge, the polar caps of and a dark surface feature, later named
Syrtis Major, on Mars. He discovered Saturn's satellite Titan (March 25, 1655)
and was the first to clearly see its rings and to explain their appearance over
time (1655-59). In 1656 he independently discovered the
Orion Nebula M42 and made detailed studies and
sketches of this object, including the discovery of three stars of the
Trapezium cluster.
He visited London in 1665 and was made a member of the Royal Society. On invitation of the French King Louis XIV, he came to Paris in 1666 and became a founding member of the Academie Royale des Sciences (Royal Academy of Sciences) where he worked with G.D. Cassini.
In 1684, he undertook new studies of the Orion Nebula and independently discovered the fourth Trapezium star which had been originally discovered in the meantime by Picard in 1673.
Huygens left France in about 1686 for religious reasons, fearing persecution as he was a protestant, visited England in 1689 and then retired to The Hague, where he died in 1695.
