Luís Cruls

Luíz Cruls or Luís Cruls or Louis Ferdinand Cruls (21 January 1848 – 21 June 1908) was a Belgian-born Brazilian astronomer and geodesist. He was Director of the Brazilian National Observatory from 1881 to 1908, led the commission charged with the survey and selection of a future site for the capital of Brazil in the Central Plateau, and was co-discoverer of the Great Comet of 1882. Cruls was also an active proponent of efforts to accurately measure solar parallax and towards that end led a Brazilian team in their observations of 1882 Transit of Venus in Punta Arenas, Chile.

Early life

Cruls was born in 1848 in Diest, Belgium, the son of Philippe Augustin Guillaume Cruls (a civil engineer) and Anne Elizabeth Jordens. From 1863 to 1868, Cruls studied civil engineering at the University of Ghent. In 1869 he undertook training as a military engineer and officer, graduating as a 2nd Lieutenant. Cruls served in the Belgian army, attaining the rank of 1st Lieutenant, until 1873 or 1874 (sources disagree).