Félix Chemla Lamèch

Félix Chemla Lamèch (1894–1962) was a Greek-French astronomer, meteorologist, selenographer, and celestial cartographer. In 1924, he founded the Corfu Observatory. He also founded the first Astronomical Society of Greece on the island of Corfu. He was also one of the founders of the publication Ουρανία (Urania) and his articles were also published in L'Astronomie. He collaborated with countless Greek astronomers namely Theodore Stephanides whom he proposed to name a crater on the Moon after. He also gave Jean Focas his early astronomical education. Félix published a detailed map of the Moon in 1955. The crater Lamèch on the Moon is named after him.

Félix was born in Ariana (Tunis) and traveled to Greece in the 1920s where he built the Corfu Observatory to study the Moon, Saturn, and other astronomical phenomena. His first publication was about Saturn in 1926 in collaboration with Greek polymath Theodore Stephanides. He continued to live in Greece until 1929. He moved to France to the Toulouse Meteorological Service at the Garonne Observatory. He frequently returned to Greece but permanently lived in France. On 31 July 1934 he published his first map of the Moon honoring his colleagues from Corfu, Greece. When World War II broke out he joined the French Army. After the war, the Corfu Observatory was decommissioned because it was bombed and the Astronomical Society of Greece ceased operations. Félix continued his work and published a detailed map of the Moon in 1955. He died in Paris in 1962. A street in Corfu was named after him.