Named in honor of Janis Balodis, chief of the cosmic geodesy department at the Astronomical Observatory of the Latvian University, known for his work on astrometric and laser observations of artificial satellites and on methods of mathematical reductions in photographic astrometry. A set of his computer programs has been used in the Crimean minor planet service for many years. (M 20837) _ _.
Discovered on 21-8-1977 in Nauchnyj by Chernykh, N. S.