Optical studies of a local filament toward the magellanic clouds and a local IVC region

We present new spectroscopic results which constrain the distance of a large IR emitting filament near the LMC, as well as some new results for a local region with widely distributed detections of Intermediate Velocity Clouds (IVCs). We present spectroscopic observations of stars toward both regions which constrain the distances and kinematics of the interstellar features. New optical high resolution (λ/δλ⋍106) spectra have been obtained for the star HD 22252, and are used to estimate approximate distances, temperatures, and pressures within the cloud. An unusual local region of the interstellar medium with several IVCs is also reported, with multiple components of absorption from −80