{{Short description|French astronomer}} {{Infobox person | name = Odette Bancilhon | birth_date = 22 September 1908 | birth_place = | death_date = {{death year and age|1998|1908}} | death_place = | burial_place = | occupation = Astronomer | known_for = Discovered 1333 Cevenola asteroid | spouse = Alfred Schmitt }} '''Odette Bancilhon''' (22 September 1908 – 1998) was a French astronomer.<ref name="Strasbourg" /> She is best known for her work during the 1930s and 1940s at the Algiers Observatory, in Algeria, North Africa, where she discovered 1333 Cevenola, a stony Eunomian asteroid from the main-belt.<ref name="MPC-Cevenola" /><ref name="lcdb" />
== Life and work == Bancilhon was a graduate in science and she served as a meteorological assistant in Algiers for one year beginning 1 December 1932.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Dictionnaire des Astronomes Français 1850-1950|url=http://www.obs-hp.fr/dictionnaire/|access-date=2021-06-25|website=www.obs-hp.fr}}</ref> On 7 December 1933, she was appointed as Alfred Schmitt's replacement while he performed his military service. In that capacity, in 1934, she discovered the asteroid (1333) Cevenola.<ref name="Strasbourg" /><ref name=":0" /> (All of her publications at that time were signed ''O. Bancilhon'', a practice of her profession.) She was named an assistant on 1 November 1937.<ref name=":0" />
She married her colleague Alfred Schmitt in Algiers on 12 September 1942, and became known professionally as ''O. Schmitt-Bancilhon''.<ref name="Strasbourg" />
She and her husband were transferred to the Strasbourg Observatory in France on 1 January 1950, and she worked there as an assistant for several years.<ref name=":0" /> The couple then moved to the Quito Observatory in Ecuador from 2 October 1956 to 10 April 1958. She was an assistant there while her husband served as observatory director. She retired on 1 July 1964.<ref name="Strasbourg" />
The main-belt asteroid 1713 Bancilhon (measuring 5.716 kilometers in diameter) was named in her honor. It was discovered on 27 September 1951 by Louis Boyer, her former colleague at the Algiers Observatory.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="springer" />
== Selected publications == * Schmitt, A., and O. Schmitt-Bancilhon. "Positions of Comets obtained visually at the Equatorial Coudé of the Algiers Observatory." ''Observer Journal'' 31 (1948): 164.
== References == <references>
<ref name="Strasbourg">{{Cite book|title=Strasbourg Observatory Scientific Personnel (From Foundation to About Year 2000)|journal = The Multinational History of Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory|volume = 330|last1=Traut|first1=B.|last2=Heck|first2=A.|last3=Duerbeck|first3=H. W.|date=2005-01-01|publisher=Springer Netherlands|isbn=9781402036439|editor-last=Heck|editor-first=AndrÉ|series=Astrophysics and Space Science Library|pages=277–292|language=en|doi=10.1007/1-4020-3644-2_18|bibcode = 2005ASSL..330..293V }}</ref>
<ref name="MPC-Cevenola">{{cite web |title = 1333 Cevenola (1934 DA) |work = Minor Planet Center |url = http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=1333 |accessdate = 29 July 2016}}</ref>
<ref name="lcdb">{{cite web |title = LCDB Data for (1333) Cevenola |publisher = Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB) |url = http://www.minorplanet.info/PHP/GenerateALCDEFPage_Local.php?AstInfo=1333%7CCevenola |accessdate = 29 July 2016 |archive-date = 4 March 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304070912/http://www.minorplanet.info/PHP/GenerateALCDEFPage_Local.php?AstInfo=1333%7CCevenola |url-status = dead }}</ref>
<ref name="springer">{{cite book |last = Schmadel | first = Lutz D. |title = Dictionary of Minor Planet Names |publisher = Springer Berlin Heidelberg |page = 136 |date = 2007 |isbn = 978-3-540-00238-3 |doi = 10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_1714 |chapter = (1713) Bancilhon }}</ref>
</references> <!-- end of reflist -->
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bancilhon, Odette}} Category:20th-century French astronomers Category:Discoverers of asteroids Category:1908 births Category:1998 deaths Category:French women astronomers Category:20th-century French women scientists