\u201cThis important astronomical calculation was undertaken by the Irish-born Maclear, a medical doctor who was also a keen astronomer. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Astronomers and served as Her Majesty\u2019s Astronomer and Director at the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope from 1833 to 1870,\u201d according to the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of Maclear\u2019s most important tasks was to remeasure the Abbot Nicolas de Lacaille\u2019s Cape Arc of Meridian. Due to the influence of the magnetic field of the mountains around the Cape on his instruments, Lacaille\u2019s measurements in the mid-18th century had indicated that the Earth would be pear-shaped; the British Admiralty, however, wanted this enigma solved and Maclear set to work in the 1830s already,\u201d records the Cableway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Astronomer Sir Thomas Maclear built a large cairn that marks the highest point of Table Mountain in 1865. Called the Maclear Beacon, the cairn was actually constructed to assist in measuring the curvature of the earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":2127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,33],"tags":[7,14,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-2130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-travel","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-travel"},"yoast_head":"\n