Faint HII regions in the Magellanic Clouds

Abstract

We present CCD observations of several faint regions of active star formation in the Magellanic Clouds. For the five regions for which we were able to obtain photometric data we have extended the luminosity function (LF) two orders of magnitude below the previous faint limit of 1037 erg s−1 (1). Our preliminary results indicate that the LF turns over at 1036 erg s−1 for the LMC and 1036.5 erg s−1 for the SMC. It is also apparent that much of the Ha emission fainter than 1036 erg s−1 is diffuse or filamentary in nature.