John Birmingham (astronomer)

John Birmingham (1816–1884) was an Irish astronomer, amateur geologist, polymath and poet. He spent six or seven years travelling widely in Europe where he became proficient in several languages. In 1866 he discovered the recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis. He studied and wrote articles on planets, meteor showers and sunspots.

He was born to Edward Birmingham and Elly Bell and grew up on the Millbrook Estate outside Milltown, County Galway and was educated at St. Jarlath's College in Tuam. Between 1844 and 1854 he spent several years travelling through Europe, and is thought to have studied in Berlin. In 1846 and 1847 he was active in Famine relief around Tuam. In 1852 he visited Rome. When he returned home in 1854 he built up a network of newspapers and magazines to which he started contributing articles on scientific and other matters. He first attracted attention with his articles on sedimentary rocks in the west of Ireland which he contributed to the Journal of the Geological Society of Dublin.

He inherited part of the Millbrook estate, which was scattered across Galway and Mayo, in 1865, and settled at Millbrook House with two elderly aunts and a maternal uncle, Arthur Bell, who assisted him in his research. He became known as a kindly landlord but also as a scholar and intellectual. From 1858 He started contributing notes on astronomy to local newspapers. At Millbrook he built what the Tuam Herald called a large wooden house with a sliding roof, which formed his first observatory. On 12 May 1866 he discovered the variable star T Coronae Borealis in the constellation Corona Borealis. This success of this find led him to acquire a powerful new telescope from Thomas Cooke of York (which cost £120), fitted with a lens made by Thomas Grubb of Dublin.

In 1866, he wrote an essay about the disappearance of a crater on the surface of the moon and the subsequent appearance of a vast luminous cloud in its place. In its review of the essay, the Irish Times commented: “We know of no paper which contains an equal amount of learning in so brief a space, in so charming a style and manner, and stamps him as a man of learning, eloquence and refined taste combined with genius.” In 1883, the Royal Irish Academy presented Birmingham with a gold medal for his valuable contributions to the society's transactions.

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