COUTREZ, Gaston
La Planète “Rosselia”, à Mademoiselle M.Th. Rossel
Brussels, January 1938 and January 4th 1940
11 hand-written pages illustrated with drawings and photographs, in wrappers with title; excellent condition, light spotting to wrappers
This document comprises two letters (2 pages and 9 pages) in which the astronomer Gaston Coutrez of the Observatoire Royale de Belgique informs Marie-Thérèse Rossel that a newly discovered minor planet has been given the name “Rosselia”, in honour of her and her family. In the 11 pages Coutrez gives the exact details of the discovery and the observation, a historical overview of the discovery of asteroids and a drawing of the orbit of “Rosselia”. Gaston Coutrez (1888-1865) was a Belgian astronomer at the Royal Observatory of Belgium. Marie-Thérèse Rossel (1 February 1910 – 18 June 1987) was a Belgian newspaper editor and businesswoman who headed the Rossel publishing company for fifty years. These letters are a beautiful testimony of how early 20th century astronomical pioneers went about their practice. Coutrez also mentions the necessary work of observations of the planet under clear skies of his colleagues Vaïsälä in Finland and Cyrill Jackson in Johannesburg. It also shows the unrestrained belief in future inventions when Coutrez tells Rossel that maybe one day she might be able to visit “her” planet.
