First results of the CIDA Schmidt survey - Selected zones in Taurus-Auriga

We have begun an objective-prism H-alpha survey of star-forming regions using the CIDA 1 m Schmidt Camera, with a limiting magnitude of V ~ 18. We report here first results for selected areas of the Taurus-Auriga molecular clouds. Of the list of candidates found in the objective-prism plates, 12 stars have been confirmed as pre-main sequence by the detection of the Li I 6707 A absorption line. Five of these stars are in the dark cloud L1544, where only one T Tauri star was previously known. The new stars have very late spectral types and most have estimated masses between 0.2 M and 0.3 M.