A REANALYSIS OF INTERSTELLAR OH ABSORPTION OBSERVATIONS

We reconsider the rotational analysis of the absorption electronic A-X and D-X band systems of OH and show that interstellar observations of OH in front of bright stars have been interpreted with oscillator str engths that are too small by a factor of 2. However, the column densit ies reported from the various observations are approximately right, as a result of the neglect, in their interpretation, of the two differen t initial levels, which compensates the previous error.