Last week I published a poster of the Minkowski objects.  This week, we turn to the PNe discovered by the Czech astronomer Dr. Luboš Kohoutek.  He is one of the few astronomy legends who is still with us, celebrating his 87th birthday a few months ago.

Somewhat unfortunately, Dr. Kohoutek's most famous discovery was the comet bearing his name.  As Wikipedia states, "Because Comet Kohoutek fell far short of expectations, its name became synonymous with spectacular disappointment."

On a brighter note, Dr. Kohoutek discovered over 300 new PNe over his lifetime, many of which now bear his name.  The 1500 objects in this catalogue were numbered years after the objects were identified in publications, so the catalog consists of the typical K 1-xx, K 2-xx, and K 3-xx designations (up to K 6-xx) corresponding to their discovery publications.

Like the Minkowski PN catalogue, the Kohoutek catalogue contains many fairly mundane and tiny stellar PNe.   But there are also some fascinating objects.   I have chosen a selection of 18 PNe for the poster which I found to be the most interesting.  

Also, like the Minkowski catalogue, you will notice that the larger, brighter and more interesting objects are generally from the first (1-xx) published series of objects.  As the list progresses to 2-xx, 3-xx, and beyond, the objects become smaller, more faint and more challenging to image.

The technical data for the PNe of the poster are shown in Revision E.  If you would like to read more about any of these objects, each of the objects in the poster has previously been uploaded and described individually on Astrobin. They all reside in my Astrobin Kohoutek PN Collection.

This poster is part of an effort currently being compiled for my upcoming eBook of deep sky objects, which I will make freely available upon completion.

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As an aside, late in his career (in 2007) Dr. Kohoutek wrote a book entitled, "The Earth from an Astronomer's Perspective".  It stemmed from an interest in ecology that he developed late in life.

Here is an intriguing, thought-provoking, and perhaps controversial recent quote from him:
" I have been interested in ecology for the last ten years. It is also related to astronomy and with the fact that the Earth is part of the universe, that humanity cannot leave it (except of small groups of astronauts and only temporarily), so we have to value our planet and try to keep living conditions on it as long as possible. I am convinced that this topic is much more important for future generations and for the future of humanity than anything else.

It is really high time to cope with ecological threats - and this applies not only to world powers and their politicians. These threats are "creeping" and do not act immediately, but in terms of long life expectancy of man, such as the rise of extreme meteorological situations (drought and floods, hurricanes, sea level rise, melting glaciers). Due to the specific nature of inertia later it can be too late for the mankind. You cannot just look at the threat as a "vis maior" as they are caused mainly by human activities. Astronomers have no other choice but to warn.”