New candidate planetary nebulae in M 81

A 34' x 34' field centred on the spiral galaxy M 81 has been searched for e mission-line objects using the prime focus wide field camera (WFC) of the 2 .54 m Isaac Newton Telescope (La Palma, Spain). A total of 171 candidate pl anetary nebulae (PNe) are found, 54 of which are in common with the ones de tected by Jacoby et al. (1989). The behaviour of PNe excitation as a functi on of galactocentric distance is examined, and no significant variations ar e found. The PNe luminosity function is built for the disk and bulge of M 8 1, separately. A distance modulus of 27.92 +/- 0.23 mag is found for disk P Ne, in good agreement with previous distance measurements for M 81. (Jacoby et al. 1989; Huterer et al. 1995).