He was honored with the naming of asteroid (5657) Groombridge, discovered on August 28, 1936 by K. Reinmuth at Heidelberg and provisionally designated 1936 QE1 and 1986 RU1.

In 1806, he started to compile a star catalog down to magnitude 8-9, using a transit circle. In all he cataloged about 4000 cirumpolar stars; this work was only published posthumously (Groombridge 1838). Amoung several interesting stars, it contains the entry "Groombridge 1838", which was later found to be double by Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke and listed as "Winnecke 4" (Winnecke 1869) in his small catalog of new Double Stars. Eventually, around 1965. John Mallas found that this double star had been observed and discovered by Charles Messier and cataloged as "Messier 40 (M40)" (Mallas 1966).

Other famous stars in this catalog include the nearby (15.89 ly) high proper motion star Groombridge 1618 in Ursa Major (high PM discovered in 1842 by F.W. Argelander), and the nearby star Groombridge 34 in Andromeda (11.6 ly).

Links

• Wikipedia page for Stephen Groombridge
• Groombridge, Stephen biography by Agnes Mary Clerke, Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900

• Asteroid 5657 Groombridge (1936 QE1) (Nasa JPL, SSD Small-Body Database)

• Stephen Groombridge, 1838. Catalogue of Circumpolar Stars, Deduced from the Observations of Stephen Groombridge, Esq. F.R.S. S.R.A. Nap., Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society London, &c. Reduced to January 1, 1810. Edited by George Biddell Airy. London, 1838, XXXIV + 130 pp. [ADS: 1838cocs.book.....A]. Available online.
  The entry for Groombridge 1878 (M40 or M40 A) is on p. 55. (This page on archive.org)
• Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke, 1869. Doppelsternmessungen. Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 1738, Vol. 73, col. 145-160 (February 8, 1869); published in Altona [ADS: 1869AN.....73..145W]
• John Mallas, 1969. Letter to the Editor. Sky and Telescope, Vol. 32, No. 2 (August 1966), p. 83 [Bibcode: 1966S&T....32...83M]. Available online.