Thomas Henderson (astronomer)
Thomas Henderson (born December 28, 1798 in Dundee , Scotland , † November 23, 1844 ) was a Scottish astronomer . He was Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh and the first Astronomer Royal for Scotland . He was the first to determine the distance from Alpha Centauri to Earth .
Early life
Born in Dundee, he attended the later High School of Dundee and trained as a lawyer. His hobbies included astronomy and math . With the discovery of a new method of measuring longitude with the help of a moon occultation , he attracted the attention of Thomas Young , Superintendent of the Royal Navy 's Nautical Almanac . Young introduced Henderson to the world of astronomical science and recommended in his will to the Admiralty that Henderson be his successor.
Career
Africa
Henderson was passed over in the replacement of this post, but the recommendation was sufficient to secure a position at the British Observatory on the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa . There he made a considerable number of stellar observations between April 1832 and May 1833, for which he is still known today. For example, Henderson concluded from the great proper motion Alpha Centauris that this star is very close to Earth.
The 1830 version of "space race" was about being the first person to determine the distance to a star using parallax . The closer a star is, the easier it is to measure with this method. Henderson was in a good position to do this. After returning to the UK due to poor health, he began analyzing his measurements. Ultimately, he concluded that Alpha Centauri is a little less than a parsec (3.25 light years ) away. This result was 33.7% too small, but very good for the time.
Doubts about the reliability of his instruments prevented him from publishing. So Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel came before him, who in 1838 published the parallax of 3 parsecs (9.6% too little) for 61 Cygni . Henderson published his results only in 1839. Thus, because of his lack of confidence in his own results, he only got second place.
Scotland
In 1834 he was named the first Royal Astronomer for Scotland in recognition of his measurements at the Cape and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . On the advice of Prime Minister Lord Melbourne , he was given the then vacant astronomy chair at the University of Edinburgh . He worked at the Edinburgh City Observatory until his death in 1844. He was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard .
The Henderson lunar crater and the asteroid (3077) Henderson are named after him.
source
- Dave Gavine: Thomas Henderson 1798–1844 - Scotland's First Astronomer Royal. In: Journal 38th Astronomical Society of Edinburgh, 1998, accessed June 15, 2008 .
Web links
- Publications by T. Henderson in the Astrophysics Data System
- NN: Biographical notice of Professor Henderson. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 6 (1845), pp. 157-180 bibcode : 1845MNRAS ... 6..157. (detailed obituary, English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Henderson: On the Parallax of α Centauri . In: Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society . tape 11 , January 3, 1839, p. 61-68 , bibcode : 1840MmRAS..11 ... 61H .
- ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Thomas Henderson (astronomer) in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature of the IAU (WGPSN) / USGS
- ↑ Thomas Henderson (astronomer) at the IAU Minor Planet Center (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Henderson, Thomas |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish astronomer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 28, 1798 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dundee , Scotland |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 23, 1844 |