Meanwhile a result of the same kind, but of a more striking character than either Bessel's or Struve's, had been obtained, one might almost say casually, by a different method and in a distant region. Thomas Henderson, originally an attorney's clerk in his native town of Dundee, had become known for his astronomical attainments, and was appointed in 1831 to direct the recently completed observatory at the Cape of Good Hope. He began observing in April, 1832, and, the serious shortcomings of his instrument notwithstanding, executed during the thirteen months of his tenure of office a surprising amount of first-rate work. With a view to correcting the declination of the lustrous double star Alpha Centauri (which ranks after Sirius and Canopus as the third brightest orb in the heavens), he effected a number of successive determinations of its position, and on being informed of its very considerable proper motion (3·6" annually), he resolved to examine the observations already made for possible traces of parallactic displacement. This was done on his return to Scotland, where he filled the office of Astronomer Royal from 1834 until his premature death in 1844. The result justified his expectations. From the declination measurements made at the Cape and duly reduced, a parallax of about one second of arc clearly emerged (diminished by Gill's and Elkin's observations, 1882-1883, to O·75"); but, by perhaps an excess of caution, was withheld from publication until fuller certainty was afforded by the concurrent testimony of Lieutenant Meadows's determinations of the same star's right ascension.[76] When at last, January 9, 1839, Henderson communicated his discovery to the Astronomical Society, he could no longer claim the priority which was his due. Bessel had anticipated him with the parallax of 61 Cygni by just two months.