L. Kohoutek

Version 2000 of the Catalogue of Galactic Planetary Nebulae

The “Catalogue of Galactic Planetary Nebulae (Version 2000)” appears in Abhandlungen aus der Hamburger Sternwarte, Band XII in the year 2001. It is a continuation of CGPN(1967) and contains 1510 objects classified as galactic PNe up to the end of 1999. The lists of possible pre-PNe and possible post-PNe are also given. The catalogue is restricted only to the data belonging to the location and identification of the objects. It gives identification charts of PNe discovered since 1965 (published in the supplements to CGPN) and those charts of objects discovered earlier, which have wrong or uncertain identification. The question “what is a planetary nebula” is discussed and the typical values of PNe and of their central stars are summarized. Short statistics about the discoveries of PNe are given. The catalogue is also available in the Centre de Donnees, Strasbourg and at Hamburg Observatory via internet.

On the discovery of Comet Kohoutek (1973f)

Abstract A brief account is given of the circumstances that surrounded the discovery of Comet 1973f.

Preliminary Analysis of Photometric Variations of the Central Star of the Planetary Nebula Sh 2–71

We confirm the presence of regular UBV (RI)C light variations of the object in the center of the planetary nebula Sh 2–71, with an improved period of P = 68.132 ± 0.005 days. The shapes and amplitudes of light curves, in particular colours, are briefly discussed.

Accurate coordinates of planetary nebulae

Accurate optical coordinates of 734 PNe, measured on the charts of the Digitized Palomar Sky Survey, are presented. As a result of the discussion about the external accuracy the constants –0.8″ in RA and +0.8″ in DEC should be added to the coordinates measured by us. They were used but rounded off already in CGPN(2000). The list and measurements of new 31 candidates of central stars are given which might be interesting for stellar evolution.

The Binary-Star Hypothesis for the Nucleus of NGC 1514

It is well known that the central star of the planetary nebula NGC 1514 (α 50=4h06m.1, δ50 = + 30°39′; l II= 165.5, b II = −15.3) differs from the other planetary nuclei by its high brightness (relative to the nebula) and late-type spectrum. The difference B * − B n =1m.9, and especially the A0-spectral type (Chopinet, 1963) are quite atypical for central stars. For these reasons we began a complex study of this object (Kohoutek, 1967; Kohoutek and Hekela, 1967) on the basis of the following sources of observational material: (1) Palomar Sky-Survey prints (Schmidt-camera, Palomar Observatory); (2) direct photographs in UBV system with the 2-m Schmidt-camera in Tautenburg (1962); (3) photoelectric UBV photometry with the 65-cm reflector at Ondřejov (1964–65), (4) spectrograms of the central star using the 122-cm reflector in Asiago (1965), and relatively infrequent observational data from the older literature.