Henderson, Thomas

Thomas Henderson, (born Dec. 28, 1798, Dundee, Angus, Scot.—died Nov. 23, 1844, Edinburgh), Scottish astronomer who, as royal astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope (1831–33), made measurements that later allowed him to determine the parallax of a star (Alpha Centauri). He announced his findings in 1839, a few months after both German astronomer Friedrich Bessel and Russian astronomer Friedrich Struve had received credit for first measuring stellar parallaxes.

Henderson was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (1832), the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1834), and the Royal Society of London (1840). Upon his return from the Cape of Good Hope in 1834, he was appointed the first Astronomer Royal of Scotland, professor of astronomy at the University of Edinburgh, and director of Calton Hill Observatory.