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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 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 their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...
.
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 and ...
in Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
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 FRS FRSE FAS (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 child ...
, 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 years ...
of stars down to about eighth or ninth magnitude. 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 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 commonly observed phenomen ...
, 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 frame ...
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, and the seventh Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881. His many achievements include work on planetary orbits, measuring the mean density of the E ...
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 the observed changes in the apparent places of stars or other celestial objects in the sky, as seen from the center of mass of the Solar System, compared to the abstract background of the more distan ...
. 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
Groombridge 1618 is a star in the northern constellation Ursa Major. With an apparent visual magnitude of +6.6, it lies at or below the threshold of stars visible to the naked eye for an average observer. It is relatively close to Earth, ...
, a nearby star
* Groombridge 34
Groombridge 34 is a binary star system in the northern constellation of Andromeda. It was listed as entry number 34 in ''A Catalogue of Circumpolar Stars'', published posthumously in 1838 by British astronomer Stephen Groombridge. Ba ...
, a double star. The 16th nearest star system
Notes
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 People from Goudhurst 19th-century British astronomers Fellows of the Royal Society