Alpha Centauri's parallax (Henderson)
Paralaje de Alfa Centauri (Henderson)
- Date
- 1832-1839 · confidence high
- Place
- Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa
- Credited to
- Thomas Henderson
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Between 1832 and 1833 Henderson measured from the Cape the parallax of Alpha Centauri, the star nearest the Sun, and obtained about 1.16 arcseconds (modern value: 0.75). He published the result in 1839, after Bessel.
Henderson was the first to observe, but Bessel (61 Cygni, 1838) was the first to publish; credit is usually shared among the three with Struve (Vega).
What it led to
- the first estimate of the distance to the nearest star
- consolidation of the Cape Observatory
- confirmation of the parallax method alongside Bessel and Struve