George Ogden Abell

George Ogden Abell (March 1, 1927 – October 7 1983) was an astronomer at UCLA who is best known for his catalogue of clusters of galaxies.

The Abell catalogue is an almost complete list of approximately 4000 clusters containing at least 30 members up to a redshift of z = 0.2. See List of galaxy clusters. The original catalogue of clusters in the northern hemisphere was published in 1958. The extended catalogue, including clusters in the southern hemisphere, was published posthumously in 1987 in collaboration with Corwin and Olowin .

Abell also co-discovered periodic comet 52P/Harrington-Abell .

At the time of his death, he was to have become editor of the Astronomical Journal effective January 1 1984.

Obituaries

• JRASC 77 (1983) L85
• QJRAS 30 (1989) 283