Named in honor of Hiroyoshi Tanabe (1928– ), astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatory (formerly known as the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory) during 1953–1989. Tanabe’s research fields is the light of the night sky. He made extensive ground-based observations of the gegenschein, the first rocket observation of the inner zodiacal light and outer corona, and he estimated the background light by making star counts in various regions of the sky. He made regular airglow observations for 33 years, Tanabe served as president of IAU Commission 21 during 1979–1982 and was an officer of the Astronomical Society of Japan for many years. (M 32094) _ _.