Brinkley, John (1763–1835)

English astronomer. After a brilliant career at Cambridge and a short period of working with Nevil Maskelyne at Greenwich, he was appointed professor of astronomy at Dublin University and shortly afterwards became the first Astronomer Royal for Ireland. At the Dunsink Observatory he investigated the possibility of observing stellar parallaxes with the meridian circle.

He attempted to overcome the observational problem of refraction in the atmosphere, studying numerous methods to defeat the problem and measuring the constants of aberration due to the motion of the earth. He made it his life's work to measure the trigonometric parallax of bright stars, but he was unsuccessful due to problems with his instruments.

Brinkley was born in Woodbridge, Suffolk. He resigned as Astronomer Royal 1826 to become bishop of Cloyne. He was also president of the Royal Irish Academy for a time.