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

He joined the staff of Harvard College Observatory in 1887.

After the observatory received the "Boyden Fund" bequest from the will of Uriah A. Boyden, Bailey played a major role in finding a site for "Boyden Station" in Arequipa, Peru, and was in charge of it from 1892 to 1919. He was also one of the first to carry out meteorological studies in Peru, traveling extensively in desolate areas at very high altitude. Boyden Station was moved to South Africa in 1927 and became Boyden Observatory.

He made extensive studies of variable stars in globular clusters in the southern skies. He also measured the period of the light curve of 433 Eros during its 1903 opposition with great accuracy.

He 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.

He discovered one asteroid, 504 Cora .

External links

• Harvard in Peru, Part I
• Harvard in Peru, Part II
• Harvard in Peru, Part III

Obituaries

• JRASC 25 (1931) 266 (one sentence)
• MNRAS 92 (1932) 263
• PASP 43 (1931) 317