We present integral field spectroscopy of two selected zones in the Orion nebula obtained with the Potsdam Multi‐Aperture Spectrophotometer, covering the optical spectral range from 3500 to 7200 Å and with a spatial resolution of 1 arcsec. The observed zones are located on the prominent Bright bar and on the brightest area at the north‐east of the Orion south cloud, both containing remarkable ionization fronts. We obtain maps of emission‐line fluxes and ratios, electron density and temperatures, and chemical abundances. We study the ionization structure and morphology of both fields, whose ionization fronts show different inclination angles with respect to the plane of the sky. We find that the maps of electron density, O+/H+ and O/H ratios show a rather similar structure. We interpret this as produced by the strong dependence on density of the [O ii] lines used to derive the O+ abundance, and that our nominal values of electron density – derived from the [S ii] line ratio – may be slightly higher than the appropriate value for the O+ zone. We measure the faint recombination lines of O ii in the field at the north‐east of the Orion south cloud, allowing us to explore the so‐called abundance discrepancy problem. We find a rather constant abundance discrepancy across the field and a mean value similar to that determined in other areas of the Orion nebula, indicating that the particular physical conditions of this ionization front do not contribute to this discrepancy.

We present results from integral field spectroscopy of a field located near the Trapezium Cluster using the Potsdam Multi-Aperture Spectrophotometer (PMAS). The observed field contains a variety of morphological structures: five externally ionized protoplanetary discs (also known as proplyds), the high-velocity jet HH 514 and a bowshock. Spatial distribution maps are obtained for different emission line fluxes, the c(Hβ) extinction coefficient, electron densities and temperatures, ionic abundances of different ions from collisionally excited lines (CELs), C 2+ and O 2+ abundances from recombination lines (RLs) and the abundance discrepancy factor of O 2+ , ADF(O 2+ ). We distinguish the three most prominent proplyds (177-341, 170-337 and 170-334) and analyse their impact on the spatial distributions of the above mentioned quantities. We find that collisional de-excitation has a major influence on the line fluxes in the proplyds. If this is not properly accounted for then physical conditions deduced from commonly used line ratios will be in error, leading to unreliable chemical abundances for these objects. We obtain the intrinsic emission of the proplyds 177-341, 170-337 and 170-334 by a direct subtraction of the background emission, though the last two present some background contamination due to their small sizes. A detailed analysis of 177-341 spectra making use of suitable density diagnostics reveals the presence of high-density gas (3.8 × 10 5 cm −3 ) in contrast to the typical values observed in the background gas of the nebula (3800 cm −3 ). We also explore how the background subtraction could be affected by the possible opacity of the proplyd and its effect on the derivation of physical conditions and chemical abundances of the proplyd 177-341. We construct a physical model for the proplyd 177-341 finding a good agreement between the predicted and observed line ratios. Finally, we find that the use of reliable physical conditions returns an ADF(O 2+ ) about zero for the intrinsic spectra of 177-341, while the background emission presents the typical ADF(O 2+ ) observed in the Orion nebula (0.16 ± 0.11 dex). We conclude that the presence of high-density ionized gas is severely affecting the abundances determined from CELs and, therefore, those from RLs should be considered as a better approximation to the true abundances.

We present results from integral field optical spectroscopy with the Potsdam Multi‐Aperture Spectrograph of the Herbig–Haro (HH) object HH 204, with a spatial sampling of 1 × 1 arcsec2. We have obtained maps of different emission lines, physical conditions and ionic abundances from collisionally excited lines. The ionization structure of the object indicates that the head of the bow shock is optically thick and has developed a trapped ionization front. The density at the head is at least five times larger than in the background ionized gas. We discover a narrow arc of high Te([N ii]) values delineating the southeast edge of the head. The temperature in this zone is about 1000 K higher than in the rest of the field and should correspond to a shock‐heated zone at the leading working surface of the gas flow. This is the first time this kind of feature is observed in a photoionized HH object. We find that the O+ and O abundance maps show anomalous values at separate areas of the bow shock probably due to: (a) overestimation of the collisional de‐excitation effects of the [O ii] lines in the compressed gas at the head of the bow shock, and (b) the use of a too high Te([N ii]) at the area of the leading working surface of the flow.