H-ALPHA-EMISSION STARS IN THE CIRCINUS REGION

Halpha emission objects were searched for, using objective-prism Schmidt plates in a 5 deg2 sky area around the Circinus R2 region. 47 emission stars have been detected, 45 of which are new findings. Low-dispersion slit spectroscopy was obtained for some of them, and objective-prism Schmidt observations in the blue-violet region were used in order to clarify their nature. These observational data, together with the properties of the IRAS sources associated with some of them, indicate that the detected emission stars are mostly T Tauri stars or related objects. They make two spatially distinct groups, one located in a dark cloud complex including D316.9 - 3.8 and the other near the north-eastern margin of D318.2 - 4.3C. We propose to designate them as Cir T1 and T2 associations, respectively.