A Survey for hot Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae I. Methods and First
  Results
  We present the results of initial spectrographic followup with the Very Large
Telescope (UT3, Melipal) for $K_s \ge 14$ Galactic plane CIV emission-line
candidates in the near-infrared (NIR). These 7 faint stars all display
prominent HeI and CIV emission lines characteristic of a carbon-rich Wolf-Rayet
star. They have NIR colours which are much too blue to be those of distant,
classical WR stars. The magnitudes and colours are compatible with those
expected for central stars of planetary nebulae, and are likely to come from
massive progenitor populations, and themselves be more massive than any sample
of planetary nebulae known. Our survey has identified thousands of such
candidates.
