James Dunlop

James Dunlop FRSE (31 October 1793 – 22 September 1848) 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 (now named Parramatta), New South Wales, about 23 kilometres (14 mi) west of Sydney 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.

James Dunlop was born in Dalry, Ayrshire, Scotland, the son of John Dunlop, a weaver, and his wife Janet, née Boyle. Dunlop was educated at a primary school in Dalry and went to work at a thread factory in Beith when he was 14. He also attended a night-school in Beith kept by a man named Gardiner. He became interested in astronomy at an early age and was constructing telescopes in 1810. By fortune in 1820, he made the acquaintance of the astronomical inclined Sir Thomas Brisbane. In the same year, Brisbane was appointed as the new Governor of New South Wales, who then decided to set up an astronomical observatory in the new Colony. Prior to leaving Britain, Dunlop was then appointed as his second scientific assistant, and both travelled to Sydney in 1821.

Soon after arriving, Brisbane almost immediately started building his observatory at Paramatta (original spelling), now named Parramatta, and it was Dunlop who was employed to do the astrometric observations for a new accurate southern star catalogue. Also employed was the German born Carl Ludwig Christian Rümker (or sometimes as Charles Karl Ludwig Rümker) (28 May 1788 – 21 December 1862), or simply Karl Rümker, who had been recruited by Brisbane as first astronomical assistant. Rümker soon left the observatory in protest of his treatment during 1823, leaving Dunlop in charge of the astrometric measures and general maintenance of the astronomical instruments and the Observatory. Dunlop was not a professionally trained astronomer, so he importantly lacked the necessary mathematical skills to do astrometric reductions. He had soon learned the necessary observational skills from the more able Rümker and his employer.

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