Milorad B. Protić

Milorad B. Protić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милорад Б. Протић; 19 September 1911, Belgrade – 29 October 2001, Belgrade) was a Serbian astronomer, discoverer of comets and minor planets, and three times director of the Belgrade Observatory.^[2]

Milorad B. Protić

Minor planets discovered: 7^[1]

1517 Beograd	20 March 1938
1550 Tito	29 November 1937
1554 Yugoslavia	6 September 1940
1564 Srbija	15 October 1936
1675 Simonida	20 March 1938
2244 Tesla	22 October 1952
2348 Michkovitch	10 January 1939

Life and work

Protić finished a technical secondary school in 1921 and worked as a technical draftsman until 1931.^[3] He joined the Belgrade Observatory in 1932,^[4] while in 1936 he started observations of minor planets, comets, and satellites, which have been continuously performed until the present-day.^[3]

Protić is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 7 numbered asteroids during 1936–1952,^[1] including 1675 Simonida, named after queen Simonida, wife of medieval Serbian king Stefan Milutin, and 2348 Michkovitch, a rare Erigone asteroid named after Vojislav Mišković (1892–1976), who was a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and head of the Belgrade Observatory.^[5] Protić also independently discovered comet C/1947 Y1.^[2]

Protić died on 29 October 2001 in Belgrade. The main-belt asteroid 22278 Protitch, discovered by Henri Debehogne at ESO's Chilean La Silla site in 1983, was named in his memory.^[2] Naming citation was published on 30 December 2001 (M.P.C. 44186).^[6]

Also, the outer main-belt asteroid 1724 Vladimir is named after Protić's grandson Vladimir Benišek, while 5397 Vojislava is named after Vojislava Protić-Benišek, his daughter, who has been a member of the observatory's staff since 1972, where she continues her father's work on celestial mechanics and minor planets, together with her son.^[4]

See also

• Category:Erigone asteroids