Stephen GroombridgeFRS (7 January 1755 – 30 March 1832) was a British merchant andastronomer.
He was born atGoudhurst inKent on 7 January 1755. He succeeded when about 21 to the business inWest 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 toBlackheath in 1802.[1]
In 1806, using a then newtransit circle built byEdward Troughton, he began compiling astar catalogue of stars down to about eighth or ninthmagnitude. He spent ten years making observations on theGroombridge Transit Circle and another ten years doing reductions of the data (correcting forrefraction, 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 foraberration andnutation among others.
Groombridge died in Blackheath. HisCatalogue of Circumpolar Stars was published posthumously in 1838 with the help of fellow astronomerGeorge Biddell Airy 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 An earlier edition had been published in 1833 but was found to contain errors and was withdrawn.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 byFriedrich Wilhelm Argelander to have a very highproper motion. For many decades its proper motion was the highest known; today it still occupies third place.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Stephen, Leslie;Lee, Sidney, eds. (1890). "Groombridge, Stephen".Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 23. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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