Michael William Feast (29 December 1926[1][2] – 1 April 2019) was a British-South African astronomer.
He served as Director of the South African Astronomical Observatory from 1976–1992, then became a professor at the University of Cape Town.
[3] His research focussed on the structure of the Milky Way, the Magellanic Clouds, and the cosmic distance ladder using variable stars.
[4][5] Feast holds the degrees of BSc (Hons) and PhD from London[6] From 1949 to 1951 he worked with Gerhard Herzberg at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, following which from 1952 to 1974 he was at the Radcliffe Observatory, Pretoria[7] He was also director of the South African Astronomical Observatory from 1976 to 1992.
[14] His most frequently cited paper (440 times[15]) relates to his pioneering study of the brightest stars in the Magellanic Clouds with Thackeray and Wesselink;[16] see, for example, Hodge (1999).