Czech & Slovak comet discoverers
Luboš Kohoutek
Luboš Kohoutek,PhD. (* 1935) is a Czech astronomer living and working in
Germany. His whole life is devoted to planetary
nebulae research. He became famous after the discovery of comet 1973 f, which
was predicted to be the brightest comet of the 20th century. Although these
expectations were not
fulfilled, this comet was the most observed comet in the 20th century by professionals
and the general public as well.
Dr. Lubos Kohoutek was born in 1935, January 29 in Zábřeh, Moravia. His interest
for astronomy started during his high school studies.
After studying physics at Masaryk University
in Brno in the years 1953-1956, he graduated in astronomy in 1958 at Charles
University in Prague.
During his university studies he focused on the observation of meteors and
meteor showers research. Luboš Kohoutek regularly participated on meteor
expeditions, several
took place in Piešťany, Slovakia, at the top Bezovec hill.
After completion of the university studies, he followed on the doctoral study at the Astronomical
Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague, where his supervisor was prof.
Lubos Perek. Subject of his dissertation were planetary nebulae and he continued their research
after obtaining his doctorate. The result of several years of work
was Catalogue of Galactic
Planetary Nebulae, which was published in 1967 with co-author doc. Lubos Perek,
his doctoral supervisor.
As visiting astronomer Kohoutek continued his research of planetary nebulae
at observatory Hamburg - Bergedorf, Germany, where was the largest
Schmidt telescope at that time.
Invasion of Soviet troops into
Czechoslovakia in 1968 changed his short-term assignment in Germany to permanent
residence and he did not returned to Czechoslovakia.
Over the folowing decades devoted to planetary nebulae research,
he gradually discovered new and new objects, so the original catalog had several additions.
In 2001, the catalog was updated and re-published under the title Catalogue of
Galactic Planetary Nebulae (version 2000), this time with a total of 1510 objects.
The original one contained 1,036 nebulae.
Lubos Kohoutek is one of the astronomers who always performed his job very
thoroughly and carefully. Thank to this approach he made his discoveries, which
were actually a by-product of primary research. After carefully search of
photographic plates from perspective of planetary nebulae, he checked them
for other objects too. This way he found a
number of variable stars and one supernova.
The discovery of his first comet in 1969 was also the result of systematic work
and thoroughness - he spotted new comet on the spectral image of two novaes in the
constellation Vulpecula. He discovered also many asteroids, his first four
were discovered in Hamburg on October 30 1967. He has found 76 asteroids,
among them one Near-Earth asteroid, from Apollo group,
(1865) Cerberus.
In 1971, he tried to find a lost comet 3D/Biela, whithout success, but
this effort resulted in discovery of "comet of the century", also known as Kohoutek
1973f. Luboš Kohoutek is discoverer of 5 comets in total.
Besides his home observatory in Hamburg - Bergedorf he used to observe at other
observatories with high quality conditions. It was Calar
Alto in Spain, but especially Southern European Observatory (ESO) in La Silla,
Chile, where he observed over 200 nights in period 1974 - 2008.
Since 1964 he is member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). For his life's
work has won numerous awards, in 2010 it was Frantisek Nusl Price from the Czech
Astronomical Society.
Luboš Kohoutek is currently enjoying retirement, but he is still scientifically
active, dedicated to the research for which he didn't have time during his active work.
He lives in Hamburg, Germany, with his wife Christine and they have two daughters.
Asteroid 1942 EN discovered by K. Reinmuth on photographic plates from March 23, 1942, was named in his honour (1850) Kohoutek.
Citation published in Minor Planet Circular:
(1850) Kohoutek = 1942 EN
Named in honour of the Czech astronomer, Luboš Kohoutek (1935), on the staff of
the observatory at Hamburg-Bergedorf since 1969.
He has contributed much to our knowledge of planetary nebulae and emission-line stars
and is also widely known as a discoverer of comets and minor planets.
List of comets discovered by Luboš Kohoutek
at discovery
designation
References: