Robert Grant (17 June 1814 – 24 October 1892) was a Scottish astronomer.
Overcoming health problems and financial difficulties, he published in 1852 the complete text of his book The History of Physical Astronomy from the Earliest Ages to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century. The work immediately took a leading place in astronomical literature and won for Grant the 1856 Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1859 he became John Pringle Nichol's successor as professor in astronomy in the University of Glasgow. He contributed various astronomical papers to scientific journals but his main work consisted in determining the positions of a large number of stars with the Ertel[note 1] transit-circle of Glasgow Observatory. The results of his work, extending over 21 years, are contained in the Glasgow Catalogue of 6415 Stars, published in 1883. A few weeks after his death in 1892, there was publication of the Second Glasgow Catalogue of 2156 Stars.[1]
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