Observational Astrophysics from Rockets. I. Nebular Photometry at 1300 A.

The techniques of rocket astronomy with photon counters has been advanced so that observations with 3 resolution are possible A survey of the winter sky in the spectral region 1225-1350 A has been made with this resolution Numerous extended sources of high surface brightness have been discovered These sources tend to occur near 0 and B stars A nebula, 22?5 in diameter, around a Virginis is discussed The flux at the earth from this nebula is 1 X 10-i erg/cm2/sec, while a Vir itself has not been detected An upper limit for the stellar flux is set at 2 X 10- erg/cmi/sec Ordinary atomic recombination processes cannot account for the high nebular flux observed in this wave-length region Collisional processes or the degradation of stellar energy above 912 A might provide an explanation