José Bonilla (astronomer)
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José Bonilla | |
|---|---|
| Born | José Árbol y Bonilla February 5, 1853 |
| Died | 1920 (aged 66–67) Mexico City, Mexico |
| Known for | Bonilla observation, first person to photograph a UFO |
José Árbol y Bonilla (February 5, 1853 – 1920) was a Mexican astronomer, engineer, and astrophotographer.
He is most known for the 1883 Bonilla observation, in which he observed and photographed hundreds objects passing in front of the Sun through a telescope.[1] The identity of the objects he observed remained unknown until 2011 when they were identified as comet fragments.[2]
The photographs that Bonilla took of his are some of the earliest examples of unidentified flying object photography.[3]
José Árbol y Bonilla was born on February 5, 1853, in Ciudad de Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Mexico. His parents were Francisco Árbol y Bonilla and María de Jesús Carrillo.[4]
He studied topographical engineering in Zacatecas before being granted a scholarship to the Escuela de Minas in Mexico City by Zacatecas governor Gabriel García in 1873. He studied civil engineering at Escuela de Minas and completed the three-year course in one year. For this accomplishment, he won the 1875 Premio al Mérito (Award of Merit) from President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada.[4]
Career
After his graduation in 1874, Bonilla returned to Zacatecas and became a teacher at the García Literary Institute where he also began studying science and technology. In 1879, he moved to Paris to study celestial photography at the Paris Astronomical Observatory where he became a member of the Flammarion Scientific Society of Paris.[4][5]
On December 6, 1882, the Astronomical Observatory in the State of Zacatecas opened in Ciudad de Zacatecas with Bonilla acting as director. It was the first major astronomical observatory in Mexico to be opened outside of Mexico City.[5] It was while he was director of the Zacatecas observatory when he made his famous Bonilla observation in 1883.
Bonilla would serve as director of the Zacatecas observatory until 1911 when he became the director of the National School of Arts and Crafts in Mexico City.[5]
