Arthur Allen Hoag (1921-1999) was an
American astronomer most famous for his discovery of
Hoag's object in 1950. He was the son of
Harvard Medical School,
Cornell, and
University of Michigan faculty member
Lynne Arthur Hoag and wife Wylma Wood Hoag. He had two sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. His mother and sister Mary (aged 3) died on
June 1 1926 when the
Washington Irving was rammed by an oil barge and sunk on the
North River.
The 3225 Hoag asteroid discovered by Carolyn and E. M. Shoemaker was named after him. He received his PhD in Astronomy from Harvard in 1953 under Bart Bok. He was director of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona from 1977. He was noted for his work in photoelectric and photographic photometry. He also developed astronomical instruments. He researched quasistellar sources.
References