IRAS 17477-2633 , the SIMBAD biblio

We present observations of the region between |l|≤10° and |b|≤3° in the OH 1612.231MHz line, taken in 1993 October and November with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The region was systematically searched for OH/IR stars and was covered completely with 539 pointing centres separated by 30'. The size of the dataset calls for a special reduction technique that is fast, reliable and minimizes the output (positions and velocities of possible stars only). Having developed such a reduction method we found 307 OH masing objects, 145 of which are new detections. Out of these, 248 have a standard double-peaked spectral profile, 55 a single-peaked profile and 4 have nonstandard or irregular profiles. In this article we analyse the data statistically and give classifications and identifications with known sources where possible. The astrophysical, kinematical, morphological and dynamical properties of subsets of the data will be addressed in future articles. These observations are part of a larger survey, covering |l|≤45° and |b|≤3°, with the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Very Large Array. The electronic version of this paper, that includes table and spectra, can be obtainded from EDP Sciences. The table is also available via anonymous ftp (130.79.128.5) or through the World Wide Web (http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html).