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E.B. Burgh, S.R. McCandliss, P.D. Feldman (JHU)
We present the preliminary results from a NASA/JHU sounding rocket mission (36.136 UG), launched on 14 June 1999 at 01:40 MST, to obtain a long slit (200\arcsec~\times~12\arcsec) spectrum of the Dumbbell Nebula (M27, NGC6853) in the 900 -- 1400 Å\ wavelength region. Emission lines of \ion{C}{2}, \ion{N}{3}, \ion{He}{2}, and \ion{H}{1} were recorded along with the continuum spectrum of the central star. We also tentatively identify a continuous emission longward of Lyman \alpha as resulting from \ion{H}{1} two-photon emission. Nearly concurrent long-slit spectroscopy was obtained from the Apache Point Observatory using the Dual Imaging Spectrograph in the low resolution mode covering the 3800 -- 9800 Å\ wavelength regime. In future work we intend to constrain the density and temperature of the excited gas by comparing our far-UV and optical spectra to photoionization models of the nebular emission.
The far-UV observations were supported by NASA grant NAG5-5122 to the Johns Hopkins University. The optical observations were obtained with the Apache Point Observatory 3.5-meter telescope, which is owned and operated by the Astrophysical Research Consortium.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: ebb@jhu.edu