ULTRAVIOLET AND VISIBLE SPECTROPOLARIMETRY OF THE RED RECTANGLE AND HD-44179

We present the first ultraviolet and visible spectropolarimetry of the biconical nebula the Red Rectangle and its associated binary HD 44179 . These observations were made between 1992 November and 1995 November using the Faint Object Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telesco pe and two separate ground-based observations. These new data gives mo re clues to the geometrical picture of the region. Previous results ha ve typically reported linear polarizations in the visible and infrared of 1%-2%. We present results that clearly show an increase in the con tinuum polarization shortward of 2000 Angstrom into the 10%-15% range. In addition, the position angle is seen to rotate by 65 degrees in th e same wavelength region, probably a result of the bipolar geometry an d the existence of an optically thick equatorial disk. It is also seen that lines due to Mg II absorption, H alpha emission, and several lin es due to CO are polarized differently than the continuum. There also appear to be features attributable to OH, which would be extremely unu sual considering the assumed carbon-rich atmosphere that is present.