1. Thomas Maclear was an Irish-born Cape Colony astronomer who became Her Majesty's astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope.
10 Facts About Thomas Maclear
1. 2.
Thomas Maclear then worked as house-surgeon in the Bedford Infirmary.
3.
Thomas Maclear had a keen interest in amateur astronomy, and would begin a long association with the Royal Astronomical Society, to which he would be named a Fellow.
4.
Thomas Maclear worked with John Herschel until 1838, performing a survey of the southern sky, and continued to perform important astronomical observations over several more decades.
5.
Mary Thomas Maclear, like Margaret Herschel, was a noted beauty and intelligent, though suffering from extreme deafness.
6.
Between 1841 and 1848, Thomas Maclear would be occupied in performing a geodetic survey for the purpose of recalculating the figure of the Earth via an arc measurement.
7.
Thomas Maclear caused a beacon to be erected on top of Table Mountain which was used as a triangulation station for the checking of de Lacaille's arc measurement.
8.
Thomas Maclear became close friends with David Livingstone, and they shared a common interest in the exploration of Africa.
9.
Thomas Maclear performed many other useful scientific activities, including collecting meteorological, magnetic and tide data.
10.
Thomas Maclear is buried next to his wife in the grounds of the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope.