Named in honor of Josef K. M. Solf (1934– ), professor of astronomy at Heidelberg and Jena, and since 1994 director of the Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg. During 1969–1994 he served as staff member of the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie at Heidelberg and its Calar Alto Observatory. He is primarily interested in instrumentation for large optical telescopes. A pioneer in using high-resolution long-slit spectroscopic techniques, Solf made important contributions to the study of collimated mass outflows from both young and evolved stars, such as jets from pre-main sequence stars, Herbig-Haro objects, protoplanetary nebulae, nova shells and jets from symbiotic stars and central stars of planetary nebulae. (M 34555) _ _.