Asteroid 51 Nemausa and possible detection of Neptun in 1835
Taken by Odd Trondal on June 11, 2026 @ Norway
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It is a large main-belt asteroid that was discovered on January 22, 1858, by Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent. He made the discovery from the observatory of Benjamin Valz in Nîmes, France. The house at 32 rue Nationale in Nîmes, has a plaque commemorating the discovery.
Valz named the asteroid after the Celtic god Nemausus, the patron god and namesake of Nîmes during the Roman times

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/51_Nemausa

Joseph Laurent (1823 -1900), was a French amateur astronomer and chemist who discovered the asteroid 51 Nemausa in 1858, for which he was a recipient of the Lalande Prize awarded by the French Academy of Sciences. It is also likely that he is the same person as the person of that name who provided chemistry assistance to photography pioneer André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri in 1853.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Jean_Pierre_Laurent

Jean Elias Benjamin Valz (1787 – 1867) was a French astronomer. He was born in Nîmes and trained as an engineer. He was the son of politician Jean Valz and the grandson of the doctor, meteorologist and naturalist Pierre Baux (1708–1790). He became interested in astronomy and comets in particular, observing the return of what would later be named Comet Encke. He later made a very complete calculation of the orbital elements of another comet, for which he won recognition.
In 1835 he hypothesized that irregularities in Comet Halley's orbit could be explained by an unknown planet beyond Uranus — at the time, Neptune was not yet discovered (1846).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Valz

Distance from the Sun (au) : 2,35

Time: 23:50UT 2026-06-11 Exp. 10 x 5 sec.
Tel. 0.254m f/5.8 ST-10XME CCD @ -15°C 1.9"/pix
Odd Trondal Obs.code 238 (Uranium). Oslo Norway.

Software used:TheSky6,CCDSoft 5, MSB Astroart 2.0, 8.0, Paint
Photographer's website:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/odd_trondal/
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