Introduction

The AAO/UKST Galactic Plane H Survey presents a new era in the study of Galactic supernova remnants and their optical radiation. While generally brightest in their radio emission, many can additionally be seen optically. In most cases this radiation is dominated by the H emission line.

We plan to use the H survey to examine all known supernova remnants close to the southern Galactic plane. The primary goal will be to increase the number that have been optically detected. In addition, we will be looking for features of objects not detected by previous work, and other objects that may be new supernova remnants.

Optical searches have been carried out before, most notably the early work of van den Bergh et al. (1973), and references therein. Several more optical detections were made later by use of the ESO/SERC Sky Surveys (e.g., Zealey et al. 1979), and through CCD observations of specific objects. A new search based on the H survey will greatly improve on this work. The narrow bandwidth of the H filter will reduce the level of continuum emission below that of IIIaJ red plates. This allows us to peer deeper through the absorbing material blocking our view of the galaxy, increasing the number of objects likely to be detected.

© Copyright Astronomical Society of Australia 1997