The local interstellar medium in the direction of the Galactic anticentre

High resolution observations of interstellar Na I absorptions in the spectr a of early-type stars in the second Galactic quadrant have been used to der ive the spatial distribution of the nearby interstellar gas in the Galactic anticentre hemisphere. The data show the presence, within the region explo red and within the nearest 150 pc, of eight diffuse interstellar clouds wit h LSR velocities in the range 15-55 km s(-1). Molecular gas previously iden tified close to the Sun by Trapero et al. (1995) and Trapero et al. (1996) is embedded in one of the clouds. The motion of these clouds does not refle ct any motion of the gas away from the Scorpio-Centaurus association, showi ng that the kinematics observed in the neighbourhood of the Sun by Lallemen t and Bertin (1992) is restricted, in the second Galactic quadrant, to the nearest similar to 50 pc.