Thomas Romney Robinson

Armagh Planetarium and Observatory

(1792–1882, in office 1823–1882)

Rev. Dr John Thomas Romney Robinson FRS was born in Dublin to the English portrait painter Thomas Robinson and his wife Ruth (née Buck). He was prodigious from a young age; a collection of his ‘Juvenile Poems’ was published in Belfast (where the family moved) in 1806. He became a fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 1814 and served as the Deputy Professor of Natural Philosophy for several years.

In 1823 he obtained the position of Director of Armagh Observatory – a post he would hold for nearly 59 years! With the help of Archbishop Beresford and his own innate enthusiasm for science, he obtained a number of new instruments and performed numerous observations, culminating in his catalogue of stars: ‘Places of 5,345 Stars Observed from 1828 to 1854 at the Armagh Observatory’ (published 1859 in Dublin). He also worked with Lord Rosse on the Leviathan of Parsonstown and with Thomas Grubb on a 15-inch reflector now situated in the 1827 Dome.

Apart from astronomy, he also had great interest in meteorology. He invented the cup anemometer, the wind-measuring device that is, with only minor changes, still in widespread use to this day. He also helped establish the first automated weather stations in the British Isles, situating one of the seven stations – naturally – at the Observatory.

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