Solon Irving Bailey (December 29, 1854 – June 5, 1931) was an American

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

and discoverer of the main-belt asteroid

504 Cora Cora (minor planet designation: 504 Cora), provisional designation , is a metallic asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 30 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by American astronomer Solon Bailey at Harvard Coll ...

, on June 30, 1902. Bailey joined the staff of Harvard College Observatory in 1887. He received an M.A. from there in 1888 in addition to his previous M.A. from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

. After the observatory received the "Boyden Fund" bequest from the will of

Uriah A. Boyden Uriah Atherton Boyden (February 17, 1804 – October 17, 1879) was an American civil and mechanical engineer and inventor from Foxborough, Massachusetts best known for the development of a water turbine, that later became known as the Boyden ...

, Bailey played a major role in finding a site for Boyden Stationwaywiser.fas.harvard.edu/people/7478/boyden-station-arequipa in Arequipa, Peru, and was in charge of it from 1892 to 1919. He was also one of the first to carry out

meteorological Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

studies in Peru, traveling extensively in desolate areas at very high altitude. Boyden Station was moved to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in 1927 due to better weather conditions and became known as the

Boyden Observatory Boyden Observatory is an astronomical research observatory and science education centre located in Maselspoort, north-east of the city of Bloemfontein in Free State, South Africa. The observatory is managed by the Physics Department of the Un ...

. He made extensive studies of

variable star A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as ...

s in globular clusters in the southern skies. He also performed a light-curve analysis measured the rotation period of the near-Earth asteroid

433 Eros Eros (minor planet designation: (433) Eros), provisional designation is a stony asteroid of the Amor group and the first discovered and second-largest near-Earth object with an elongated shape and a mean diameter of approximately . Visi ...

during its 1903 opposition with great accuracy. Bailey was acting director of Harvard College Observatory from 1919 to 1921 after the death of Edward Charles Pickering and prior to the appointment of

Harlow Shapley Harlow Shapley (November 2, 1885 – October 20, 1972) was an American scientist, head of the Harvard College Observatory (1921–1952), and political activist during the latter New Deal and Fair Deal. Shapley used Cepheid variable stars to estim ...

. He worked as a senior colleague with Henrietta Leavitt. He was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 1892. Irving died at his summer home in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, New Hampshire, from an illness caused by heart disease, in 1931.

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