Named in memory of Alois Purgathofer (1925–1984), Austrian astronomer. Purgathofer mainly worked on photometry of galactic clusters, and he also observed special minor planets, e.g., (51) Nemausa. He put much effort into establishing an observatory with two telescopes at a remote site outside Vienna. Purgathofer was a member of the Committee on Image Tubes for Telescopes of the Carnegie Institution. He investigated planetary nebulae after building an image-tube spectrograph of his own design. (M 22508) _ _.