James Dunlop

Who was James Dunlop?

James Dunlop FRSE FRS was a Scottish astronomer, noted for his work in Australia. He served as astronomer's assistant who was hired by Sir Thomas Brisbane to work at his private observatory, once located at Paramatta, New South Wales, about 23 kilometres west of Sydney, Australia during the 1820s and 1830s. Dunlop was mostly a visual observer, doing stellar astrometry work for Brisbane, and after its completion, then independently discovered and catalogued many new telescopic southern double stars and deep-sky objects. He later became the Superintendent of Paramatta Observatory when it was finally sold to the New South Wales Government.