Abstract
THE Union Astronomer, Dr. H. E. Wood, director of the Union Observatory, Johannesburg, retired on February 3. Dr. Wood, who was educated at the University of Manchester, was appointed assistant at the Transvaal Observatory, under the directorship of the late Dr. R. T. A. Innes in 1908. The work of that Observatory had been largely meteorological, of a routine nature, but after the appointment of Dr. Innes as director, the astronomical work was developed, new instrumental equipment was obtained and the Observatory-the name of which was changed to the Union Observatory in 1912-became one of the most important in the southern hemisphere. Dr. Wood succeeded Dr. Innes as Union Astronomer, on the latter's retirement in 1927. He has been particularly interested in the observation of minor planets and comets; he discovered many new minor planets and computed many orbits of minor planets and comets. Dr. Wood has also been an assiduous observer of occupations of stars by the moon, and the large number of occul ations observed at the Union Observatory for many years has been of the greatest value in the study of the moon's motion. Dr. Wood has been closely associated with the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, of which he was for many years one of the secretaries and of which he was president in 1931.
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The Union Observatory, Johannesburg. Nature 147, 772 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147772c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147772c0