Ľudmila Pajdušáková

Who was Ľudmila Pajdušáková?

Ľudmila Pajdušáková was a Slovak astronomer.

She specialized in solar astronomy, and also discovered a number of comets, including periodic comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková, and the non-periodic C/1946 K1, C/1948 E1, C/1951 C1 and C/1953 X1.

She observed at Skalnaté Pleso Observatory and became its third director from 1958 to 1979.

The asteroid 3636 Pajdušáková is named after her.

She may have been married to Antonín Mrkos. In a 1951 "Comet Notes" article in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific [PASP 63 209], Leland E. Cunningham in discussing comet C/1951 C1 refers to her as "Miss Pajdušáková", and there was an astronomy book published in 1956 by Ľudmila Mrkosová-Pajdušáková, as well as various scientific papers under this name from approximately 1952–1958. However, their respective biographies do not seem to mention any such marriage.