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K. France, S. R. McCandliss, P. D. Feldman (JHU), E. B. Burgh (Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison)
We present the preliminary results from a NASA/JHU sounding rocket mission (36.198 UG), launched on 09 February 2001 at 21:00 MST, to obtain a long slit (200\arcsec~\times~12\arcsec) spectrum of the reflection nebula IC 405 in the 900 -- 1400 Å\ wavelength region. Several pointings within the nebula were obtained, including a high quality (S/N \approx 10-15 at R = 300) spectrum of the central star, HD 34078, which clearly shows absorption from molecular hydrogen (H2). Observations of the nebula reveal a surface brightness to stellar flux ratio that rises by two orders of magnitude between 1400 and 900 Å. This is in contrast with the relatively flat nebular dust scattering observed during a prior sounding rocket observation of the reflection nebula NGC 2023. We will also present additional nebular pointings within IC 405, including a region observed by the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope showing evidence of H2 fluorescent emission.
These observations were supported by NASA grant NAG5-5122 to the Johns Hopkins University.