Jean-Philippe Loys de Cheseaux (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ filip lois də ʃezo]; 4 May 1718 – 30 November 1751) was a Swiss astronomer.

[1] In 1736, Loys de Cheseaux installed an observatory in his father's lands in Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne.

[1][2] He acquired a reputation in Europe as an astronomer with the publication of his Traité de la Comète,[1] in 1744, a treatise on his observations of the comet C/1743 X1 in which he also became one of the first to state, in its modern form, what would later be known as Olbers' paradox (that, if the universe is infinite, the night sky should be bright).

The list was noted privately by Le Gentil in 1759, but only made public in 1892 by Guillaume Bigourdan.

[2] In addition to astronomy, Loys de Cheseaux researched Biblical chronology, calculating the movements of the Sun and Moon relative to descriptions in the Book of Daniel and the occurrence of solstices and equinoxes in Jerusalem at the time of the Old Testament story.