IPHAS: Surveying the North Galactic Plane in H-alpha

Drew, J. E.; Lennon, D. J., Greimel, R.; Zijlstra, A.; Irwin, J.; Aungwerowijt, A.; Barlow, M. J.; Corradi, R.; Evans, C. J.; Gaensicke, B.; Groot, P.; Hales, A.; Hopewell, E.; Irwin, M. J.; Jaigirdar, M.; Knigge, C.; Leisy, P.; Mampaso, A.; Matsuura, M.; Morales Rueda, L.; Morris, R.; Parker, Q. A.; Phillipps, S.; Rodríguez Gil, P.; Roelofs, G.; Skillen, I.; Steeghs, D.; Unruh, Y. C.; Viironen, K.; Vink, J.; Walton, N. A.; Witham, A.; Wright, N.; Zurita, A.
Bibliographical reference

The Newsletter of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING Newsl.), issue no. 9, p. 3-7.

Advertised on:
3
2005
Number of authors
33
IAC number of authors
3
Citations
1
Refereed citations
0
Description
H-alpha emission is ubiquitous in our Galaxy. It traces ionised gas of assorted nebulae such as HII regions, planetary nebulae, Wolf-Rayet nebulae, and supernova remnants. It is a strong signature of active stars, interacting binaries, very massive stars (especially supergiants, Luminous Blue Variables and Wolf-Rayet stars), Be stars, post-AGB stars, pre-main-sequence stars and so on. These objects represent important evolutionary phases which are generally short lived, and are hence few in number and difficult to find. Their discovery is therefore well worth the effort of a concerted programme and in August 2003 a major new survey project was started using the Wide Field Camera (WFC) on the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) to do just that. It is called the INT Photometric H-alpha Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane, or IPHAS for short.