BALMER DISCONTINUITY TEMPERATURES IN THE ORION-NEBULA

We have mapped the Balmer discontinuity temperature T-e(BJ) along two long-slit positions in the Orion Nebula, using high-quality spectra ob tained with the ESO 1.52 m telescope and with the 3.9 m AAT. One slit was oriented north-south and positioned 40 '' west of theta(1) C Ori. The second slit was oriented east-west, with its eastern end 10 '' wes t of theta(1) C Ori, identical to the slit position previously studied by Waiter and Dufour (1994). For the NS slit, both the 1.52 m and the AAT data yield a constant temperature of about 9000 K, with variation s of only a few hundred K over a total slit length of about 3.'5. For the EW-slit, our data reveal two distinct regions of nearly constant t emperatures of 8900 and 7200 K, respectively, possibly resulting from two separate H II regions. No evidence is found for the anomalously lo w temperatures reported by Waiter and Dufour for the same region.