Willem Hendrik van den Bos

Willem Hendrik van den Bos (25 September 1896, Rotterdam – 30 March 1974) was a DutchSouth African astronomer. At least one source refers to him as Van der Bos, but this seems to be an error.

He initially worked at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, but came to Union Observatory in South Africa in 1925, becoming director in 1941.

He discovered thousands of double stars and recorded tens of thousands of micrometer measurements of such stars, calculating the orbits of a number of binary stars.

He was president of the Astronomical Society of South Africa in 1943 and 1955.

Some biographical sources say he discovered more than a hundred asteroids. However, the Minor Planet Center does not credit him with any asteroid discoveries.

The asteroid 1663 van den Bos is named after him, as is the lunar crater van den Bos.

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