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Session 6 - The ISM & Molecular Clouds.
Display session, Monday, June 09
South Main Hall,

[6.08] A Polarization Map in H\alpha of the North America Nebula

G. A. Topasna, J. H. Simonetti, B. Dennison (Virginia Tech)

Optical polarimetric images of NGC 7000 were made in the Balmer-alpha line. These images were obtained using the Spectral Line Imaging Camera at Virginia Tech which has a high brightness sensitivity to H\alpha emission. In order to obtain the polarized images a rotating polarizer was placed in front of the CCD camera. Images were recorded at 45^\circ intervals resulting in four sets of polarized images. To reduce noise, the pixels were binned resulting in a resolution of about 5 arcminutes. From these images a polarization map on NGC 7000 was obtained. The polarization structure is evidently correlated with the apparent extinction. This research was supported by NSF grant AST-9319670 and a grant from the Horton Foundation to Virginia Tech.


Program listing for Monday