Robert Thorburn Ayton Innes (November 10 1861 – March 13 1933) was a Scottish-South African astronomer best known for discovering Proxima Centauri in 1915, and numerous binary stars. He also happens to be the first astronomer to have seen the Great January Comet of 1910 , on January 12. He was the founding director of a meteorological station which he converted to an astronomical observatory and renamed to Union Observatory.

A lunar crater is named after him, as is the asteroid 1658 Innes .