Editing Thomas Romney Robinson (section)

==Biography==
Robinson was born at St Anne's in [[Dublin]], the son of the English portrait painter Thomas Robinson (d. 1810) and his wife, Ruth Buck (d. 1826).<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=9 April 2018|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was educated at [[Belfast Academy]] then studied Divinity at [[Trinity College Dublin]], where he was [[List of Scholars of Trinity College Dublin|elected a Scholar]] in 1808, graduating BA in 1810 and obtaining a fellowship in 1814, at the age of 22. He was for some years a deputy professor of [[natural philosophy]] (physics) at Trinity.

Having been also ordained as an Anglican priest while at Trinity, he obtained the [[Benefice#Church of England|church livings]] of the Anglican Church at [[Enniskillen]] and at [[Carrickmacross]] in 1824.{{cn|date=October 2021}} 

[[File:Armagh Observatory 1883b-s.jpg|left|thumb|Armagh Observatory, 1883]]
[[File:John Thomas Romney Robinson by James Simonton c1850s.png|thumb|Robinson in the 1850s by James Simonton]]
In 1823, now aged 30, he additionally gained the appointment of astronomer at the Armagh observatory.<ref name="Armagh">[http://www.arm.ac.uk/history/moore/Appendix.html "Directors of Armagh Observatory"]</ref> From then on he always resided at the Armagh observatory, engaged in researches connected with astronomy and physics, until his death in 1882.

During the 1840s and 1850s Robinson was a frequent visitor to the world's most powerful telescope of that era, the so-called [[Leviathan of Parsonstown]] telescope, which had been built by Robinson's friend and colleague [[William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse]]. Robinson was active with Parsons in interpreting the higher-resolution views of the night sky produced by Parsons' telescope, particularly with regard to the [[galaxies]] and [[nebulae]] and he published leading-edge research reports on the question.<ref>Book [https://books.google.com/books?id=wyWjVWYWoO8C&dq=Robinson&pg=PA106 ''Observing and Cataloguing Nebulae and Star Clusters''], by Wolfgang Steinicke, year 2010, pages 106–117.</ref> Back at his own observatory in Armagh, Robinson compiled a large catalogue of stars and wrote many related reports. In 1862 he was awarded a [[Royal Medal]] ''"for the Armagh catalogue of 5345 stars, deduced from observations made at the Armagh Observatory, from the years 1820 up to 1854; for his papers on the construction of astronomical instruments in the memoirs of the Astronomical Society, and his paper on electromagnets in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy"''.

Robinson is also of note as the inventor of a device for measuring the speed of the wind, the Robinson [[cup-anemometer]] (1846).

He was president of the [[Royal Irish Academy]] from 1851 to 1856, and was a long-time active organiser in the [[British Association for the Advancement of Science]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/life-society/science-technology/irish-scientists/robinson-thomas-romney/|title= Thomas Romney Robinson (1793–1882)|publisher= Ask about Ireland|access-date = 7 August 2013}} Robinson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1856: {{cite web|url = http://royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=41&dsqSearch=%28%28text%29%3D%27robinson%27%29|title= Library archive|publisher= [[Royal Society]]|access-date = 7 August 2013}}</ref>

Robinson was a friend of [[Charles Babbage]], who said he was "indebted" for having reminded him about the first time he came up with the idea of the calculating machine.<ref>Scientific types (1968). James Gerald Crowther. Barrie & Rockliff, p. 274</ref>