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Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers pp 1090–1091Cite as

Innes, Robert Thorburn Ayton

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Born Edinburgh, Scotland, 10 November 1861

Died Surbiton, Surrey, England, 13 March 1933

Scottish-Australian-South African observational astronomer Robert Innes discovered more than 1,600 double (binary) stars; compiled a definitive catalog of double stars discovered from the Southern Hemisphere; and discovered Proxima Centauri, the third, very faint component of the closest star system. He was the eldest of 12 children of John and Elizabeth (née Ayton) Innes, and showed early promise in mathematics, but left school at age 12 on account of practical concerns. Thereafter he was entirely self-taught. In 1884 Innes married Anne Elizabeth Fennell; they had three sons. The couple moved to Sydney, Australia, where Innes was to become a successful wine merchant. Under clear Australian skies his passion for astronomy blossomed. W. F. Gale lent him a Cooke refractor, and he began a search for southern double stars. Innes corresponded with astronomer David Gill , which eventually led Gill to...

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Selected References

  • Finsen, W. S. (1973). “Innes, Robert Thorburn Ayton.” In Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by Charles Couliston Gillispie. Vol. 7, pp. 17–18. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

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  • Innes, Robert (1899). “Reference Catalogue of Southern Double Stars.” Annals of the Royal Observatory, Cape Town 2, no. 2.

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  • — (1914). “Discovery of Variable Stars, etc., with Pulfrich’s Blink-mikroskop, and Remarks upon Its Use in Astronomy.” Union Observatory Circular 20.

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  • — (1915). “A Faint Star of Large Proper Motion.” Union Observatory Circular 30.

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  • — (1925). “Transits of Mercury, 1677–1924.” Union Observatory Circular 65.

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  • — (1926). “Orbital Elements of Binary Stars.” Union Observatory Circular 68.

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  • Innes, Robert, B. H. Dawson, and W. H. van den Bos (1925). Southern Double Star Catalogue 19° to −90°. Johannesburg.

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  • Moore, Patrick and Pete Collins (1977). The Astronomy of Southern Africa. Cape Town: Howard Timmins.

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  • Sitter, W. de (1934). “Robert Thorburn Ayton Innes.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 94: 277–281.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Utah Valley State College, Orem, UT, USA

    Keith Snedegar

Authors
  1. Keith Snedegar
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Correspondence to Keith Snedegar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Science, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, USA

    Thomas Hockey

  2. University of California, Irvine School of Physical Sciences, Irvine, CA, USA

    Virginia Trimble

  3. Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Thomas R. Williams

  4. Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, USA

    Katherine Bracher

  5. York Univesity, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Richard A. Jarrell

  6. University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

    Jordan D. Marché II

  7. University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    JoAnn Palmeri

  8. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Daniel W. E. Green

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Snedegar, K. (2014). Innes, Robert Thorburn Ayton. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_700

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