John Brinkley (astronomer)

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John Brinkley (1763—September 14, 1835) was the first Royal Astronomer of Ireland and later, Bishop of Cloyne.

Brinkley was born in Woodbridge, Suffolk and in 1792 became the second Andrews Professor of Astronomy at the University of Dublin. His main work concerned stellar astronomy and he published his Elements of Plane Astronomy in 1808. He was awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society in 1824.

Brinkley's observations that several stars shifted their apparent place in the sky in the course of a year were disproved at Greenwich by his contemporary John Pond, the Astronomer Royal.

In 1826 he was appointed Bishop of Cloyne in Cork, a position he held for the remaining nine years of his life.

John Brinkley died in Dublin at the age of 71 or 72 (the date of his birth remains undocumented) and was succeeded at Dunsink Observatory by William Rowan Hamilton.