Fabry-Perot H-alpha observations of Galactic H II regions

The radial velocity and linewidth of H-alpha emission from 284 objects listed in Galactic H II region catalogs were observed using a Fabry-Perot spectrometer. A few of these objects are supernova remnants or planetary nebula. The rest of this sample encompasses most of the H II regions that are visible optically from the Northern Hemisphere. These observations are compared to previous H-alpha observations as well as to radio recombination line and CO observations. The average radial-velocity difference V(CO) - V(H-alpha) is 0.50 + or - 0.48 km/s and the (1-sigma) dispersion is 6.44 km/s. The implications of these values are discussed in terms of a very simple kinematic and extinction H II region model. Total H-alpha luminosities for the sample are estimated, and the Galactic H II region luminosity function is compared to that recently found for other galaxies. (Author)