Robert Grant Aitken (December 31, 1864 – October 29, 1951) was an American astronomer. December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1864 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 63 days remaining. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... An astronomer or astrophysicist is a scientist whose area of research is astronomy or astrophysics. ...

Note the cumbersome hearing aid

He worked at Lick Observatory. He systematically studied double stars, measuring their positions and calculating their orbits around one another. He methodically created a very large catalog of such stars, with the orbit information enabling astronomers to calculate stellar mass statistics for a large number of stars. ImageMetadata File history File links Robertgrantaitken. ... The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. ... Double Star is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. ...

Aitken also measured positions and computed orbits for comets and natural satellites of planets. Photo of the comet Hale-Bopp above a tree. ... Moons of solar system scaled to Earths Moon The common noun moon (not capitalized) is used to mean any natural satellite of the other planets. ... A planet in common parlance is a large object in orbit around a star that is not a star itself. ...

Aitken was partly deaf and used a hearing aid. He married Jessie Thomas around 1888, and had three sons and one daughter. His grandson, Robert Baker Aitken, is a widely-known Zen Buddhist teacher and author. The word deaf, can have very different meanings based on the background of the person speaking or the context in which the word is used. ... Behind the ear aid A hearing aid is a device used to help the hard-of-hearing hear sounds better. ... 1888 is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... Robert Aitken and Anne Aitken Robert Baker Aitken (born 1917 in Philadelphia) is an American teacher of Zen Buddhism in the Harada-Yasutani (or Sanbo Kyodan) tradition, a blending of Soto and Rinzai schools. ... Bodhidharma, woodblock print by Yoshitoshi, 1887. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by...

Honors

Awards

• Bruce Medal (1926)
• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1932)

Named after him The Catherine Wolfe Bruce gold medal is awarded every year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding lifetime contributions to astronomy. ... 1926 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Gold Medal is the highest award of the Royal Astronomical Society. ... 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ...

• Asteroid 3070 Aitken
• Aitken crater on the Moon, part of the very large South Pole-Aitken basin

An asteroid is a small, solid object in our Solar System, orbiting the Sun. ... Aitken is a large lunar impact crater that lies on the far side of the Moon. ... Crust composition Oxygen 43% Silicon 21% Aluminium 10% Calcium 9% Iron 9% Magnesium 5% Titanium 2% Nickel 0. ... The South Pole-Aitken basin is an impact crater on Earths Moon. ...

External links

• Bruce Medal page
• Awarding of Bruce Medal
• Awarding of RAS gold medal
• Double Star Oberver, Cataloguer, Statistician, and Observatory Director

Obituaries

• IrAJ 2 (1952) 27 (one paragraph)
• JO 35 (1952) 25 (in French)
• JRASC 46 (1952) 28
• MNRAS 112 (1952) 271
• PASP 64 (1952) 5