Person

Lenehan, Henry Alfred (1843 - 1908)

FRAS

Born
28 August 1843
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died
2 May 1908
Normanhurst, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Astronomer

Summary

Henry Lenehan initially worked as a clerk with Australian Joint Stock Bank where he was posted to Ipswich and Rockhampton in Queensland. He then went on to work as a draftsman in the Railway Department (Queensland?). His appointment as an assistant to the Government Astronomer of New South Wales followed shortly afterwards (1870). Lenehan remained in this post for over thirty years, filling in for the Government Astronomer on several occasions. Finally, on 1 January 1907, he was appointed Government Astronomer and quickly set about organising for thousands of observations and readings to be made. These included gravity readings taken by the Sydney Observatory, magnetic studies by the Red Hill Observatory and the observation of the total solar eclipse and Daniel's comet in 1908 at Flint Island. Henry Lenehan was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society of London and was a long-term councilor and one-time president of the Royal Society of New South Wales.

Details

Chronology

1865 - c. 1870
Career position - Clerk, Australian Joint Stock Bank in New South Wales and Queensland
1870 - 1906
Career position - Assistant to the Government Astronomer
1875
Career position - Acting Government Astronomer
1887
Career position - Acting Government Astronomer
1888 -
Career event - Original [founding] member, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science
1894
Award - Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society, London (FRAS)
1901
Career position - Acting Government Astronomer
1903 - 1906
Career position - Acting Government Astronomer
1905 - 1906
Career position - President, Royal Society of New South Wales
1 Jan 1907 -
Career position - Government Astronomer

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Book Sections

Journal Articles

  • Tyler, Peter J., 'Seeing Stars in the City: a History of Early Astronomy in Sydney', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 142 (3/4) (2009), 1-14. Details
  • Wood, H., 'Sydney Observatory 1858-1983', Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 5 (2) (1983), 273-281. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1323358000017094. Details

Resources

Gavan McCarthy

EOAS ID: biogs/P001325b.htm

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