Robert T. A. Innes

Robert Thorburn Ayton Innes ( born November 10, 1861 in Edinburgh, † March 13, 1933 in London ) was a Scottish- South African astronomer. With a total of about 1,600 newly discovered double stars and countless measurements on known star pairs Innes is considered the founder of the Southern double star astronomy.

Innes was interested early on astronomy. In 1879 he was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society at the age of 17 years. Lacking the resources for astronomical instruments, he first had to be limited to theoretical work. However, his mathematical comprehension benefited him, so that the lack of a formal mathematical training for it posed no obstacle. He considered himself later - despite its considerable achievements in observational astronomy - as a mathematical astronomers in the first place.

Sydney

Innes immigrated at a young age to Australia and settled as a wine merchant in Sydney. In 1891 he published in the Monthly Notices of an investigation of the force exerted by Mars on the Earth's orbit disturbances. In 1893, he extended the calculations on the problems caused by the orbit of Venus disorders.

In 1894 he was loaned a 6 -inch refractor and was able to publish as a result of only about thirty hours of searching in December 1894 list of 26 double stars discovered by him. He began his career as an observing astronomer under the still poorly developed southern sky.

Cape Town

In an effort to gain access to better tools, Innes wrote to David Gill, Her Majesty's Astronomer at the Cape, and offered him his services as an assistant. Such a place was not free, but Gill had to occupy a position as secretary, librarian and accountant. Innes accepted the offer, moved to the Cape in 1896 and became effective on January 1, 1897 his new position at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope in Cape Town. This change was associated with significant financial losses, but opened his extensive astronomical possibilities, as he did his official duties with ease and was able to devote his free time all of astronomy.

Innes took part in the revision of the Cape Photographic survey, used the 7 - and 18 -inch telescopes of the Observatory for the observation of double stars and variable, compiled a Reference Catalogue of Southern Double Stars (1899 ) and continued his mathematical studies.

Johannesburg

In 1903, a meteorological service was established in the Transvaal. In Gill's recommendation, Innes received his authority and was thus also director of the Transvaal Observatory (1912 renamed Union Observatory ) in Johannesburg. This observatory was initially used almost exclusively meteorological purposes, but has been expanded from Innes to an astronomical observatory. Innes ran from 1903 to 1912 the meteorological service, but did his official duties in turn with such efficiency that he could devote his free time to astronomy. As of 1912, the observatory astronomy turned to exclusively.

Under the energetic leadership of Innes, the first Union Astronomer, the observatory a steady stream of observation data produced. In addition to the continuation of double star observations, these were mainly

  • The determination of the proper motion of many stars with the "Blink - Microscope", whose possibilities Innes recognized as one of the first. Photographic plates that had been taken at the Cape, in Greenwich, Melbourne and Sydney, were systematically searched for proper motions. Only the recordings from the Cape and producing approximately 4000 proper motions of stars up to the 15th magnitude. In the course of this program Proxima Centauri was discovered.
  • The manufacture of photographic maps of the southern sky (in the southern part of the Franklin -Adams charts ). John Franklin -Adams left the Union Observatory which used for the charts telescopes for other photographic works. This mainly took Harry Edwin Wood, who later became successor Innes ' as Union Astronomer.
  • A program begun in 1908, extended series of systematic observations of Jupiter's moons, which were planned only for a Jupiter - round, but were then continued much longer.

By 1914, Polhöhenschwankungen were observed.

Innes ' 1918 marked conjecture, the Earth's rotation could be subject to fluctuations was five years later to a certainty, after he had completed a re- evaluation of all observed Mercury passages.

A 1909 -commissioned 26 ½ -incher could finally be put into operation after numerous delays in 1925. Innes took with this instrument the binary search and observation again reinforced. In the first six months of 887 measurements were carried out with the new instrument and discovered 303 new pairs of stars. 1927 Innes published (in collaboration with WH van den Bos ) the Southern Double Star Catalogue.

Routine work included, among other things, the time service, seismological observations, occultations, comets and planetary observations, the discovery and observation of minor planets.

In addition, Innes also undertook further theoretical work, which he could focus their attention, after he had retired on 31 December 1927. He remained for some years in South Africa and then moved to England, where he died a few months later. He left behind his wife and three sons.

Honors

1922 awarded him an honorary doctorate from the University of Leiden - Innes took advantage of the occasion to conduct a close and fruitful cooperation with the Leiden Observatory in the way.

After Robert Innes, the asteroid ( 1658) Innes and Innes lunar crater have been named.

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