Named in memory of Joseph-Jérôme Lefrançais de Lalande (1732–1807), famous French astronomer who computed many useful tables for practical astronomical work and authored many papers and textbooks. After some years as an assistant to Delisle, Le Monnier and Lacaille {see planet  (9135)}, Lalande went to Berlin in order to prepare measurements for determining the lunar parallax. He was a member of the Berlin and Paris academies of science and was editor of many volumes of the almanac Connaissance des temps during 1760–1776 and 1794–1807. His monumental Bibliographie astronomique (1802) has lasted for two centuries. (M 34350; M 34385) _ _.