A survey of planetary nebulae in the southern Galactic bulge

We present the results of a deep and uniform narrowband H alpha imaging survey for planetary nebulae (PNs) in the southern Galactic bulge. In our survey, we have found 56 new PNs and have rediscovered 45 known PNs. We have measured the radial velocities of this uniformly selected sample and have also remeasured radial velocities for a subset of 317 PNs from the Acker catalog. Using the COBE/DIRBE 1.25, 2.2, and 3.5 mu m images, we show that there is a similar longitude distribution of the PNs and the COBE light in the zone of our deep survey. Also, we find that the extinction in our surveyed fields is not severe and that its distribution is fairly uniform. Finally, we present H alpha fluxes for 47 of our 56 newly discovered PNs and estimate the survey detection limit.