Robert Horace Baker (born March 29, 1883 in Northampton, Massachusetts; died June 23, 1964 in Upland, California) was an astronomer.
Career
Educated at
Amherst College, he graduated with an A.B. in 1904 and A.M. the following year. His graduate work in astronomy was done at the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...
where he was an assistant at
Allegheny Observatory
The Allegheny Observatory is an American astronomical research institution, a part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh. The facility is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (ref. # 79002157, ad ...
and where he obtained the Ph.D. degree in 1910.
Dr. Baker was also awarded an honorary D.Sc. by Oglethorpe University in 1936.
Dr. Baker’s first post was that of Assistant Professor at
Brown University's
Ladd Observatory
Ladd Observatory is an astronomical observatory at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1891 it was primarily designed for student instruction and also research. The facility operated a regional timekeeping service. It was re ...
(1910-1911)
and he then became a Professor at the
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...
in 1911, a post he held until 1922. While there he used a visual photometer at
Laws Observatory to study variable stars.
In 1922 he left Missouri, frustrated at an inability to obtain a more modern observatory. After a year as Kellogg Fellow at
Lick Observatory in California, he was appointed Professor of Astronomy and Director of the
University of Illinois Observatory
The University of Illinois Astronomical Observatory, located at 901 S. Mathews Avenue in Urbana, Illinois, on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was built in 1896, and was designed by Charles A. Gunn. It has been listed o ...
in 1923. While at Lick, he used the photoelectric photometer on the 12-inch telescope to study u Herculis. He continued working on photoelectric photometry when he arrived at Illinois.
In 1931-1932 and again in 1938-39 he was a Research Associate of Harvard University while on sabbatical working with
Bart Bok
Bartholomeus Jan "Bart" Bok (April 28, 1906 – August 5, 1983) was a Dutch-American astronomer, teacher, and lecturer. He is best known for his work on the structure and evolution of the Milky Way galaxy, and for the discovery of Bok globules, ...
’s Star Count Circuit. Starting in 1939, he changed his research focus to the Milky Way and Galactic Structure.
Dr. Baker’s professional activities extended through many fields. His research publications run to more than forty articles in the areas of galactic structure, extragalactic nebulae cataloguing, variable star measurement, solar corona structure, and others. He was an exceptionally fine observer and possessed the added talent of clarity of style that made his articles models of scholarly writing. It is characteristic of his abiding interest in astronomy that he continued to publish research after becoming emeritus. His students include Elaine Nantkes, Lois Kiefer, David Heeschen, and
Allan Sandage
Allan Rex Sandage (June 18, 1926 – November 13, 2010) was an American astronomer. He was Staff Member Emeritus with the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California. He determined the first reasonably accurate values for the Hubble con ...
.
Author
He enjoyed great success with his textbooks ''Astronomy'' and ''An Introduction to Astronomy'', both published by Van Nostrand, which have gone through many editions and numerous revisions. Reviewers invariably refer to them as “classics” and as the “standard by which other texts in astronomy are measured.”
Otto Struve
Otto Struve (August 12, 1897 – April 6, 1963) was a Russian-American astronomer of Baltic German origins. In Russian, his name is sometimes given as Otto Lyudvigovich Struve (Отто Людвигович Струве); however, he spent most o ...
called ''An Introduction to Astronomy'' an excellent textbook that set a high standard. Dr. Baker took special pride in these books as indicated by the fact that he kept them up to date with periodic revisions even after retirement.
His very marked ability as an author served him well also in the field of popular astronomy. His books ''The Universe Unfolding'', ''When the stars come out'', ''Introducing the Constellations'', and ''Stars: A Guide to the Heavens'' (the last in collaboration with
Herbert Zim
Herbert Spencer Zim (July 12, 1909 – December 5, 1994) was a naturalist, author, editor and educator best known as the founder (1945) and editor-in-chief of the Golden Guides series of nature books.
Biography
Zim was born 1909 in New York ...
) are known and esteemed the world over.
Among the professional societies in which he held membership are the
American Astronomical Society, the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the
American Physical Society, the
Royal Astronomical Society
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, and
Sigma Xi
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...
. Dr. Baker held this post until his retirement from the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...
in 1951, having also been an Assistant Dean of the Graduate College in 1949-1951.
Family
Robert Baker's parents were Horace Hall Baker and Ellen H. Puffer.
Robert married Rose Koenig (1885-1925) of Goldendale, Washington, in 1911 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They had three children; Ralph (1912-1988), Ruth (194-2005), and Raymond (1921-1921). Rose died in February 1925 of pneumonia.
He married Mary Howe (1901-1964) in June 1926 and had one son, Robert Howe Baker (1927-1983). Mary Howe was the daughter of Louis McHenry Howe, secretary and advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt. They divorced in 1951. Robert married Hildred Virginia Hogan in 1952.
Published works
*Baker, Robert H. (1930). ''Astronomy''. D. Van Nostrand: New York. 13 editions
*Baker, Robert H. (1932). ''The Universe Unfolding: The story of man’s increasing comprehension of the universe around him''. A Century of Progress series. Williams and Wilkins: Baltimore.
*Baker, Robert H. (editor) (1932). ''Simon Newcomb’s Astronomy for Everyone''.
*Baker, Robert H. (1934). ''When the Stars Come Out''. Viking Press: New York. 2 editions
*Baker, Robert H. (1934). ''An Introduction to Astronomy''. Van Nostrand: New York. 7 editions
*Baker, Robert H. (1937). ''Introducing the Constellations.'' Viking Press: New York. 3 editions
*Zim, Herbert S. & Robert H. Baker (1951). ''Stars: A Guide to the Heavens—Golden Guide''. Simon and Schuster: New York. (re-released in 2001 as part of Golden Field Guide Series with Mark R. Chartrand and James Golden Irving as additional authors)
*Baker, Robert H. (1928) The 30-inch Reflecting Telescope and Photoelectric Photometer of the University of Illinois. ''Popular Astronomy''. 122:86-91.
*Baker, R.H. (1933). A catalogue of 985 extragalactic nebulae in a region in Fornax and Eridanus. ''Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College''. 88:3:77-90.
*Baker, R.H. (1939). Investigations of Galactic Structure IV. The Milky Way in Cassiopeia. ''Harvard College Observatory circular'' 424: 1-16.
*Kiefer, L. & R.H. Baker. (1941). Analysis of the Milky Way in Auriga. ''Astrophysical Journal''. 94:3: 482-492.
*Baker, R.H. (1941). Analysis of a transverse section of the Milky Way in Aquila. ''Astrophysical Journal''. 94:3:493-500.
*Baker, R.H. & L. Kiefer. (1942). Analysis of the Milky Way in Ophiuchus and Northern Sagittarius. ''Astrophysical Journal''. 96: 224-233.
*Baker, R.H. & E. Nantkes. (1944). Analysis of the Milky Way in Cassiopeia. ''Astrophysical Journal''. 99 (2) 125-133.
*Nantkes, E. & R.H. Baker. (1948). Analysis of the Milky Way in Northern Cassiopeia and Cepheus. ''Astrophysical Journal'' 107 (2) 112-118.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Robert Horace
1883 births
1964 deaths
People from Northampton, Massachusetts
Amherst College alumni
University of Pittsburgh alumni
American astronomers
Fellows of the American Physical Society