 Moving to St John’s College, Cambridge, Henbest researched at the Cavendish Laboratory, under the then Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Ryle.During 1972-73 Henbest made pioneering observations of the remnant of Tycho’s Supernova (observed by Tycho Brahe in 1572).Then in 1974 he published the first comprehensive observations of quasars and galaxies made with the newly opened Five Kilometre Telescope, now named the Ryle Telescope.