13 Facts About James Bradley

1.

James Bradley was an English astronomer and priest who served as the third Astronomer Royal from 1742.

2.

James Bradley is best known for two fundamental discoveries in astronomy, the aberration of light, and the nutation of the Earth's axis.

3.

James Bradley took orders on becoming vicar of Bridstow in Herefordshire in the following year, and a small sinecure living in Wales was procured for him by his friend Samuel Molyneux.

4.

James Bradley resigned his ecclesiastical preferments in 1721, when appointed to the Savilian chair of astronomy at Oxford, while as reader on experimental philosophy from 1729 to 1760, he delivered 79 courses of lectures at the Ashmolean Museum.

5.

James Bradley retired in broken health, nine years later, to the Cotswold village of Chalford in Gloucestershire.

6.

James Bradley had medical attention from a local doctor, and Daniel Lysons from Oxford.

7.

James Bradley was buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity church, Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire.

8.

James Bradley worked with Samuel Molyneux until Molyneux's death in 1728, trying to measure the parallax of Gamma Draconis.

9.

Shortly after Molyneux's death, James Bradley realised that this was caused by what is known as the aberration of light.

10.

The basis on which James Bradley distinguished the annual motion actually observed from the expected motion due to parallax, was that its annual timetable was different.

11.

James Bradley noticed that when the boat turned about, a small flag at the top of the mast changed its direction, even though the wind had not changed; the only thing that had changed was the direction and speed of the boat.

12.

James Bradley worked out the consequences of supposing that the direction and speed of the earth in its orbit, combined with a consistent speed of light from the star, might cause the apparent changes of stellar position that he observed.

13.

The publication of James Bradley's observations was delayed by disputes about their ownership; but they were finally issued by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, in two folio volumes.