THE MARSEILLE OBSERVATORY H SURVEY OF THE SOUTHERN GALACTIC PLANE AND MAGELLANIC CLOUDS

Introduction

The H survey of the southern Galactic plane and Magellanic Clouds began in 1990 using a specific instrument elaborated and developed at the Marseille observatory. Its characteristics, widely described in Amram et al. (1991) and Le Coarer et al. (1992), are summarized in section 2. Such an instrument allows us to have the spectral information, hence the kinematic information, continuously anywhere throughout the observed field (data cubes x,y, ). The obtained profiles, extracted from the interesting zones, are the superposition of the different emission lines met along the line of sight. We have to analyse them to derive information about both systemic and internal velocities of studied regions. Also, monochromatic images may be built up by the flux integration of each emission line.

© Copyright Astronomical Society of Australia 1997