| Abstract | 76 apparently faint galaxies in the galactic plane in Puppis (l ~ 245^deg^, |b| < +/-8^deg^) were observed with the 100m radio telescope in Effelsberg. The detection rate is quite high (38 certain, 1 confused and 4 possible detections). It depends neither on galactic latitude nor on magnitude, underscoring the fact that Hi-line measurements are indeed a powerful method of obtaining redshifts for highly obscured spiral galaxies. Rough corrections of the magnitudes for extinction show that most of the galaxies are actually quite bright ( <= 14.5^m^). The majority of the galaxies were detected at fairly low velocities (v_0_ < 3000 km s^-1^).These are concentrated in four groups. The most massive one (at v_0_ ~ 1450 kms^-1^) turns out to form part of a wall that crosses the galactic plane vertically. These newly disclosed nearby groups and filaments might contribute to the peculiar motion of the Local Group. A more distant filament at v_0_ ~ 5000 km s^-1^ is indicated in the distribution as well and seems connected to outlying extragalactic large-scale structures. The global properties of the observed galaxies such as total mass, Hi- mass and M_HI_/L_B_ are normal in every respect and reflect the properties of a typical nearby sample of galaxies. The infrared properties of the 34 galaxies listed in the IRAS PSC such as the f_100_/f_60_ color temperature and the ratio of the blue to infrared flux are found to be representative of an optically selected galaxy sample [ = 0.53, = - 0.34], and the infrared luminosity L_FIR_ to correlate with the HI-mass. |
