Robert Innes

Robert Thorburn Ayton Innes FRSE FRAS (born 10 November 1861, died 13 March 1933) was a Scottish astronomer. He is best known for discovering Proxima Centauri in 1915, and many binary stars. He was also the first astronomer to have seen the Great January Comet of 1910, on 12 January. He was the founding director of a meteorological observatory in Johannesburg, which was later converted to an astronomical observatory and renamed to Union Observatory. He was the first Union Astronomer. Innes House, designed by Herbert Baker, built as his residence at the observatory, today houses the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers.