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Stephen Groombridge FRS (7 January 1755 – 30 March 1832) was a British merchant and
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2 (1833) 145
Brief biography
;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Groombridge, Stephen 1755 births 1832 deaths 18th-century British merchants People from Goudhurst 19th-century British astronomers Fellows of the Royal Society
Stephen Groombridge FRS (7 January 1755 – 30 March 1832) was a British merchant and astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
.
Life
He was born atGoudhurst
Goudhurst is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. It lies in the Weald, around south of Maidstone, on the crossroads of the A262 and B2079.
The parish consists of three wards: Goudhurst, Kilndown a ...
in Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
on 7 January 1755. He succeeded when about 21 to the business in West Smithfield of a linen draper named Greenland, to whom he had been apprenticed. Later, and until 1816, he was a successful West India merchant. He lived mainly at Goudhurst, where he built a small observatory; but moved to Blackheath in 1802.
In 1806, using a then new transit circle built by Edward Troughton
Edward Troughton (October 1753 – 12 June 1835) was a British instrument maker who was notable for making telescopes and other astronomical instruments.
Life
Troughton was born at Corney, Cumberland, the youngest of six children to Francis ...
, he began compiling a star catalogue
A star catalogue is an astronomical catalogue that lists stars. In astronomy, many stars are referred to simply by catalogue numbers. There are a great many different star catalogues which have been produced for different purposes over the year ...
of stars down to about eighth or ninth magnitude
Magnitude may refer to:
Mathematics
*Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction
*Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object
*Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector
*Order of ...
. He spent ten years making observations on the Groombridge Transit Circle and another ten years doing reductions of the data (correcting for refraction
In physics, refraction is the redirection of a wave as it passes from one transmission medium, medium to another. The redirection can be caused by the wave's change in speed or by a change in the medium. Refraction of light is the most commo ...
, instrument error and clock error). In 1827 he suffered a "severe attack of paralysis" from which he never fully recovered. Others continued the work, continuing with corrections for aberration and nutation
Nutation () is a rocking, swaying, or nodding motion in the axis of rotation of a largely axially symmetric object, such as a gyroscope, planet, or bullet in flight, or as an intended behaviour of a mechanism. In an appropriate reference fra ...
among others.
Groombridge died in Blackheath. His ''Catalogue of Circumpolar Stars'' was published posthumously in 1838 with the help of fellow astronomer George Biddell Airy
Sir George Biddell Airy (; 27 July 18012 January 1892) was an English mathematician and astronomer, as well as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 1826 to 1828 and the seventh Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881. His many achievements inc ...
and others. An earlier edition had been published in 1833 but was found to contain errors and was withdrawn. In 1842, one of the stars in his catalogue, Groombridge 1830, was discovered by Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander
Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander (22 March 1799 – 17 February 1875) was a German astronomer. He is known for his determinations of stellar brightnesses, positions, and distances.
Life and work
Argelander was born in Memel in the Kingd ...
to have a very high proper motion
Proper motion is the astrometric measure of changes in the apparent places of stars or other celestial objects as they move relative to the center of mass of the Solar System. It is measured relative to the distant stars or a stable referenc ...
. For many decades its proper motion was the highest known; today it still occupies third place.
Selected writings
* - edited by George Biddell Airy; has biographical information for GroombridgeSee also
* 5657 Groombridge, an asteroid named in his honour * Groombridge 1618, a nearby star * Groombridge 34, a double star. The 16th nearest star systemNotes
Further reading
* : * Adapted from ''Sky & Telescope'', May, 1974, page 296Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2 (1833) 145
External links
Brief biography
;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Groombridge, Stephen 1755 births 1832 deaths 18th-century British merchants People from Goudhurst 19th-century British astronomers Fellows of the Royal Society