English astronomer who, by observing the motions of sunspots (sunspot), discovered the equatorial acceleration of the Sun; i.e., that it rotates faster at the equator than near the poles. He also discovered the movement of sunspot zones toward the Sun's equator as the solar cycle progresses.

The son of a brewer, Carrington was educated at Cambridge and in 1853 established his own observatory at Redhill, Reigate, Surrey. He published A Catalogue of 3,735 Circumpolar Stars (1857), but in 1865 his health failed and he did little work thereafter.