Thomas Henderson (astronomer)

Thomas James Henderson ( born December 28, 1798 in Dundee, Scotland, † November 23, 1844 ) was a Scottish astronomer. He was the first Astronomer Royal for Scotland and calculated first the distance of Alpha Centauri to Earth.

Early life

Born in Dundee, he attended the High School of Dundee and trained as a lawyer. His hobbies included astronomy and mathematics. With the discovery of a new method to measure the longitude by means of a Mondokkultation he attracted the attention of Thomas Young, Superintendent of the Royal Navy 's Nautical Almanac. Young led Henderson into the world of astronomical science and recommended in his will of the Admiralty, that Henderson should be his successor.

Career

Africa

Henderson was overwhelmed with this position, but the recommendations were enough to get a job at the British Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. There he made between April 1832 and May 1833 a significant number of stellar observations, for which he is known today. For example, Henderson graduated from the large proper motion of Alpha Centauri, that this earth is very near.

In the 1830 version of "space race" was concerned with being the first person, determines the distance to a star using parallax. The closer a star is to measure the easier with this method. Henderson was in a good position to provide this. After due to poor health, the United Kingdom, he was back, he began to analyze its measurements. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that Alpha Centauri is a little less than a parsec (3.25 light years) away. However, this result is 33.7 % too little, but very good for its time.

Doubts about the reliability of its instruments stopped him from publishing, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel as he came before, who published for 61 Cygni 1838, the parallax of 3 parsecs (9.6% too little). Henderson published his results until 1839. Thus he got the second place due to lack of confidence.

Scotland

In 1834 he got the first Astronomer Royal for Scotland for his measuring work at the Cape. This time unmanned Astronomy Department at the University of Edinburgh was given to him on the advice of the Home Secretary Lord Melbourne. There he works at City Observatory of Edinburgh until his death. He was Buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard.

Source

  • Template: Internet resource / maintenance / access date not in ISO format template: Internet resource / Maintenance / date not in ISO format Gavino Dave Thomas Henderson 1798-1844 - Scotland 's First Astronomer Royal. In: Journal 38 Astronomical Society of Edinburgh, Spring 1998, accessed on 15 June 2008 (English).
772774
de