History

This planetary nebula was discovered in 1955 by the American astronomer George Ogden Abell on the photo plates of the «Palomar Observatory Sky Survey» (POSS). In 1955 he published a first list of 13 globular clusters and the positions of 73 planetary nebulae. The PN first had the number 49 (A55 49). In 1966 Abell published a complete list including the size and description of the 86 planetary nebulae discovered on the POSS photo plates. This planetary nebula was then number 61 on his list. The designation PK 77+14.1 comes from the two Czechoslovak astronomers Luboš Perek and Luboš Kohoutek, who in 1967 compiled a catalog of all the planetary nebulae of the Milky Way known at that time. ^{[331, 332]}