Luboš Kohoutek


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Luboš Kohoutek is a Czech astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets and comets, including Comet Kohoutek which was visible to the naked eye in 1973.

Biography

Kohoutek was born in 1935 to Hynek and Jarmila Kohoutek. His brother is the Czech composer Ctirad Kohoutek.
Kohoutek has been interested in astronomy since high school. He studied physics and astronomy at universities in Brno and Prague. Then he started to work in the Astronomical Institute of Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, where he published a well-cited catalogue. Kohoutek obtained a long term position at the Bergedorf Observatory in Hamburg. After the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia he decided to stay in West Germany. His discoveries in the 1970s made him well-known in the media. In later years Kohoutek worked in observatories in Spain and Chile, working with planetary nebulae. He officially retired in 2001, yet he is still researching at the Hamburg-Bergedorf Observatory. Kohoutek has published 162 scientific works.
Kohoutek is most famous for his discovery of numerous comets, including periodic comets 75D/Kohoutek and 76P/West–Kohoutek–Ikemura, as well as the famously disappointing "Comet Kohoutek".
He has also discovered numerous asteroids, including the Apollo asteroid 1865 Cerberus. The main-belt asteroid 1850 Kohoutek was named after him.

Discoveries

Kohoutek has discovered supernova SN 1973f and 5 comets as well as 76 minor planets.

List of discovered comets

1834 Palach22 August 1969
1840 Hus26 October 1971
1841 Masaryk26 October 1971
1842 Hynek14 January 1972
1843 Jarmila14 January 1972
1861 Komenský24 November 1970
1865 Cerberus26 October 1971
1875 Neruda22 August 1969
1894 Haffner26 October 1971
1895 Larink26 October 1971
1896 Beer26 October 1971
1897 Hind26 October 1971
1898 Cowell26 October 1971
1899 Crommelin26 October 1971
1901 Moravia14 January 1972
1931 Čapek22 August 1969
1932 Jansky26 October 1971
1933 Tinchen14 January 1972
1942 Jablunka30 September 1972
1963 Bezovec9 February 1975

3337 Miloš26 October 1971
3407 Jimmysimms28 February 1973
3475 Fichte4 October 1972
3514 Hooke26 October 1971
3627 Sayers28 February 1973
3635 Kreutz21 November 1981
3769 Arthurmiller30 October 1967 
3825 Nürnberg30 October 1967
4137 Crabtree24 November 1970
4425 Bilk30 October 1967
5268 Černohorský26 October 1971
6215 Mehdia7 March 1973
30 October 1967
24 November 1970
26 October 1971
7806 Umasslowell26 October 1971
26 October 1971
26 October 1971
26 October 1971
26 October 1971

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