We present measurements of diffuse interstellar H2 absorption lines in the continuum spectra of 10 early-type stars. The data were observed with the Berkeley Extreme and Far-Ultraviolet Spectrometer (BEFS) of the ORFEUS telescope on board the ORFEUS-SPAS I and II space-shuttle missions in 1993 and 1996, respectively. The spectra extend from the interstellar cutoff at 912 Å to about 1200Åwith a resolution of ~ 3000 and statistical signal-to-noise ratios between 10 and 65. Adopting Doppler broadening velocities from high-resolution optical observations, we obtain the H2 column densities of rotational levels J00 = 0 through 5 for each line of sight. The kinetic temperatures derived from J" = 0 and 1 states show a small variation around the mean value of 80 K, except for the component toward HD 219188, which has a temperature of 211 K. Based on a synthetic interstellar cloud model described in our previous work, we derive the incident UV intensity IUV and the hydrogen density nH of the observed components to be -0.4 ≤ log IUV ≤ 2.2 and 6.3 ≤ nH ≤ 2500 cm-3, respectively.

We present measurements of interstellar H2 absorption lines in the continuum spectra of 54 early-type stars in the Galactic disk and halo and 3 stars in the Magellanic Clouds. The data were obtained with the Berkeley Extreme and Far-Ultraviolet Spectrometer (BEFS), part of the ORFEUS telescope, which flew on the ORFEUS-SPAS I and II space-shuttle missions in 1993 and 1996, respectively. The spectra extend from the interstellar cutoff at 912＼AA to about 1200＼AA with a spectral resolution of ∼3000 and statistical signal-to-noise ratios between 10 and 65. Assuming a velocity profile derived from optical observations (when available), we model the column densities N(J) of the rotational levels J = 0 through 5 for each line of sight. Our data reproduce the relationships among molecular and total hydrogen column density, fractional molecular abundance, and reddening first seen in Copernicusobservations of nearby stars (Savage et al. 1977). The results show that most of these molecular clouds have H2 total column densities between 1015cm−2 and 1021cm−2, and kinetic temperatures from 21 K to 232 K, with average of 89 K, consistent with the result of Copernicus (Savage et al. 1977).