Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 142, 239-246

A new survey of diffuse interstellar bands (5650 - 6865 Å)

T. Weselak¹ - M. Schmidt² - J. Kreowski¹

1 - Nicolaus Copernicus University, Center for Astronomy, Gagarina 11, Pl-87-100 Torun, Poland
e-mail: tomcat@astri.uni.torun.pl, jacek@astri.uni.torun.pl
2 - Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Rabianska 8, Pl-87-100 Torun, Poland
e-mail: schmidt@ncac.torun.pl

Received December 17, 1998; accepted November 10, 1999

Abstract:

This paper presents a new systematic survey of diffuse interstellar bands in the optical wavelength range from 5650 to 6865 Å based on echelle spectra of medium-reddened early-type stars acquired at McDonald Observatory. Adding up interstellar spectra of the same type (as it was done by Kreowski et al. [1997]) we reached a very high signal-to-noise ratio. In this spectral range 89 new features have been discovered, 62 of them certain. In the whole spectral range of this survey we have found 240 features, 213 of them certain.

Key words: ISM: general -- ISM: molecules