In 1782 José Monteiro da Rocha, astronomer and professor at the University of Coimbra, presented, in a public session of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, a memoire on the problem of the determination of the orbits of comets. Only in 1799 would the “Determinação das Orbitas dos Cometas” (Determination of the orbits of comets) be published in the Academy’s memoires. In that work, Monteiro da Rocha presents a method for solving the problem of the determination of the parabolic orbit of a comet making use of three observations. Monteiro da Rocha’s method is essentially the same as the method proposed by Olbers and published under von Zach’s sponsorship 2 years before, in 1797. Having been written and published in Portuguese was certainly a hindrance for its dissemination among the international astronomical community. In this paper, we intend to present Monteiro da Rocha’s method and try to explain to what extent we can justify Gomes Teixeira’s assertion that Monteiro da Rocha and Olbers must figure together in the history of astronomy, as the first inventors of a practical and easy method for the determination of parabolic orbits of comets.

中文翻译：

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José Monteiro da Rocha (1734–1819) 和他 1782 年关于确定彗星轨道的工作

1782 年，科英布拉大学的天文学家兼教授何塞·蒙泰罗·达·罗查 (José Monteiro da Rocha) 在里斯本皇家科学院的一次公开会议上发表了关于确定彗星轨道问题的回忆录。直到 1799 年，“Determinação das Orbitas dos Cometas”（彗星轨道的确定）才会在学院的回忆录中发表。在这项工作中，Monteiro da Rocha 提出了一种利用三个观测来解决确定彗星抛物线轨道问题的方法。Monteiro da Rocha 的方法本质上与 Olbers 提出的方法相同，并于两年前在 von Zach 的赞助下于 1797 年出版。用葡萄牙语撰写和出版无疑是其在国际天文学界传播的障碍。在本文中，