Thomas Wright
(1711-1786)

astronomer

Died aged 74

Thomas Wright (22 September 1711 – 25 February 1786) was an English astronomer, mathematician, instrument maker, architect and garden designer. He was the first to describe the shape of the Milky Way and to speculate that faint nebulæ were distant galaxies.

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Commemorated on 1 plaque

Hugh Mortimer on Wikimedia Commons
Westerton, United Kingdom

This observatory tower was erected by Thomas Wright born at Byers Green 1711, died there 1786. To commemorate his treatise Theory of the Universe published 1750, this tablet was placed here by the University of Durham 1950

Thomas Wright Observatory, Westerton, United Kingdom where they worked