Paul W. Hodge

Paul Hodge is an astronomer and author who has published 25 books, most on astronomy, but five on hiking and mountains. He is best known for his work on

the nature and contents of galaxies. His discoveries and analyses of nearby galaxies have provided new understanding of their histories and their origin. Using telescopes that have been among the largest in the world, he was the discover or co-discoverer and cataloger of more than 20, 000 objects in other galaxies, including ionized hydrogen clouds, star clusters, galaxies, dark nebulae and variable stars.

As a sideline Hodge did some pioneering research on the subject of interplanetary dust, carrying out his first experiments in the mid-1950's. While at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory he designed the first aircraft-borne meteoritic dust collector, which was flown on a U2 high-altitude airplane. In 2001 the asteroid 14466 was named "hodge" in his honor.