Georgije Popovic

Serbia, Republic of

1938-2024

Obituary:

DR GEORGIJE POPOVIĆ
(1938-2024)

Dr Georgije Popović was born on July 31, 1938 at Melenci near Zrenjanin. He took degree in
1960 in astronomy at the Faculty of Sciences of Belgrade University. The postgraduate studies
he finished in 1974 at the same faculty, also in astronomy, obtaining the MsC degree. The title
of the MsC thesis is The First General Survey and Analysis of Belgrade Measurements of
Double Stars between 1951 and 1971. The PhD dissertation entitled A Procedure of
Simultaneous Detection of Moving Clusters under the supervision of T.A. Agekyan, Professor
at the Sankt-Petersburg University, he defended in 1993 at the Faculty of Mathematics of
Belgrade University.
In 1960 he got a position at the Astronomical Observatory in Belgrade where he was employed
by the time of his retirement in 2003. All that time he belonged to Double Star Group the chief of
which he became in 1976.
The main field of his scientific work was the studying of double and multiple stars. Observations
was his priority because his position was in favour of original observational data as something
valuable. Therefore, he contributed to the increase of their body. He discovered more than two
hundred double and multiple stars. In international catalogues they are recognisable through the
designations POP1, POP2, etc. He also separated the measurements of all double and multiple
stars discovered at the Belgrade Observatory and formed a database named Beomes
available at site https://old.aob.rs/Science/Beomes.html. Many orbits of binaries calculated by
Popović can be found in the most recent Sixth Catalog of Orbits of Visual Binary Stars. By his
merit the Belgrade Observatory gained a high rating in the world scientific circles studying
double and multiple stars.
For three years he led a scientific project named Studying Double and Multiple Stars (two years
before retirement and one afterwards). He taught on postgraduate studies, the subject is Double
and Multiple Stars. He attended many national and international scientific meetings. He
published more than 100 scientific papers.
He became member of the International Astronomical Union in 1979 in Commission 26.
Dr Georgije Popović passed away on May 2, 2024.