Observations of Comet Halley at H-alpha and 6300 A

High spectral resolution measurements of Comet Halley at H-alpha and OD-1 were obtained in March, 1986 using a small aperture telescope with the Fabry-Perot interferometer at the Arecibo Observatory. It is suggested that the highly structured spectral signature observed at H-alpha is due to collimation of atomic hydrogen in the inner hydrogen corona, following photodissociation of parent species, and that the emission is due to resonance fluorescence of solar Lyman-beta radiation. A feature at 6300.8 A accompanying the OD-1 emission at 6300.3 A is attributed to NH2. For a 6-arcmin field of view, a brightness for the OD-1 emission of 260 + or - 50 rayleighs is found for both March 15 and 17.