Harry Edwin Wood (3 February 1881 – 27 February 1946) was an Englishastronomer, director of theUnion Observatory inJohannesburg, and discoverer ofminor planets.^[2][3]

Wood was born inManchester, graduating fromManchester University in 1902 with first class honours in physics, going on to gain an MSc in 1905. In 1906 he was appointed the Chief Assistant at theTransvaal Meteorological Observatory, which soon acquiredtelescopes and which became known as the Union Observatory and laterRepublic Observatory. In July 1906, he established South Africa's first 24-hour weather forecasts through telegraph in theTransvaal.^[1] In 1909, he married Mary Ethel Greengrass, also a physics graduate of Manchester University. Wood served as the observatory's director from 1928 to 1941, succeedingRobert Innes. He also served as the president of theAstronomical Society of South Africa from 1929 to 1930.^[2]

Wood is credited by theMinor Planet Center with the discovery of 12 numberedasteroids during 1911–1932.^[4]

He died in Mortimer, nearCradock, South Africa, in 1946. The asteroid1660 Wood, discovered by his colleagueJacobus Bruwer at Johannesburg, is named in his honour (M.P.C. 3297).^[3]

• List of minor planet discoverers

• Hockey, Thomas (2014). "Wood, Harry Edwin".Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. pp. 2373–2374.doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_9158.ISBN 978-1-4419-9916-0.
• Biography of Harry Edwin Wood at theS2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science

• Discoveries by Harry Edwin Wood
• 1881 births
• 1946 deaths
• 20th-century British astronomers
• Alumni of the University of Manchester
• Discoverers of asteroids
• English emigrants to South Africa
• Fellows of the Royal Society of South Africa
• Scientists from Manchester
• Presidents of the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science

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• S2A3 Biographical Database ID same as Wikidata