Named in memory of Bohumil Sternberk (1897–1983), outstanding Czech astronomer and astrophysicist. He worked in a wide variety of fields, including photometry of variable stars, and he established the modern time service in Czechoslovakia. On the evening of 1930 Mar. 18, at the Stará Ďala Observatory (O’Gyalla {see planet
(1259)}, now Hurbanovo), he made the first deliberate astrometric observations of Pluto in Europe.< Sternberk served as long-time director of the Astronomical Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1954–1968) and as a vice-president of the IAU (1958–1964). (M 34628) _ _.