Named in honor of Lukas Plaut (1910–1984), Dutch astronomer, who worked at the Leiden Observatory from 1933 to 1940 and at the Kapteyn Laboratory in Groningen from 1940 to 1975. He is well known for his investigations of RR Lyrae variables near the Galactic Center. Born in Germany, he emigrated to Holland in 1933. During part of World War II he was interned in a working camp near the German town of Fürstenau under an assumed name, because of his Jewish descent; he escaped from there and returned to Holland. (M 17026) Name proposed by the Leiden Observatory. _ _.