William Rutter Dawes
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A photograph, c. 1863
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| Born | (1799-03-19)19 March 1799 |
| Died | 15 February 1868(1868-02-15) (aged 68) |
| Citizenship | English |
| Awards | Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1855) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
William Rutter Dawes (19 March 1799 – 15 February 1868) was an English astronomer.
Dawes was born at Christ's Hospital[1] then in the City of London (it moved to Horsham, West Sussex in 1902)[2], the son of William Dawes, also an astronomer, and Judith Rutter.[3]
Dawes was a clergyman who made extensive measurements of double stars as well as observations of planets. He was a friend of William Lassell. He was nicknamed "eagle eye". He set up his private observatory at his home in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire. One of his telescopes, an eight-inch (200mm) aperture refractor by Cooke, survives at the Cambridge Observatory where it is known as the Thorrowgood Telescope.
He made extensive drawings of Mars during its 1864 opposition. In 1867, Richard Anthony Proctor made a map of Mars based on these drawings.
He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1855.
Dawes craters on the Moon and Dawes crater on Mars are named after him, as is a gap within Saturn's C Ring.
Anoptical phenomenon, the Dawes limit, is named after him.
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