Darquier was born on November 23, 1718 in Toulouse (Rue Darquier 8), France.
He worked at his hometown. Using a 2.5 inch achromatic refractor with 42 inch
focal length (f/16.8) he observed sunspots and other astronomical phenomena.
The observations made between 1748 and 1773 are collected in his book Observations
Astronomiques faites Toulouse (Avignon 1777). While searching for the
comet of 1779 he found the Ring nebula M 57 in February 1779 (just a few days
after Messier) describing it as "a very
dull nebula, but perfectly outlined; as large as Jupiter and looks like a
fading planet". Friedrich von Hahn found the central
star about 1795; it was first photographed by Eugen v. Gothard in
1888. William Herschel created the term
"Planetary Nebula" in 1785 for those objects looking like a planet's
disk - maybe adopting Darquier's description and still impressed by his finding
of Uranus in 1781. Darquier observed the new planet in the same year and calculated
its orbit. Between 1791 and 1798 he made an extensive star catalogue, later
used by Lalande. Darquier died on January 18, 1802
in Toulouse at the age of 83.
