Named in memory of Sergej Nikolaevich Blazhko (1870–1956), director of the Moscow Observatory during 1920–1931, a professor at Moscow University during 1931–1953 and a corresponding member of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences. The founder of the Moscow school of variable-star research, he constructed the first general theory of eclipsing variables of the Algol type. He also proposed a new method of photographing minor planets and constructed a number of original instruments, including the blink microscope and slitless stellar spectrograph. (M 6834) _ _.