Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, formerly sometimes spelled de la Caille, (French: [lakaj]; 15 March 1713 – 21 March 1762) was a French astronomer and geodesist who named 14 out of the 88 constellations. From 1750 to 1754 he studied the sky at the Cape of Good Hope in present-day South Africa. Lacaille observed over 10,000 stars using just a half-inch refractor.