The diffuse soft X-ray background as seen with the Einstein Observatory

A systematic survey of the diffuse soft X-ray background as seen directly with the Einstein Observatory is presented. Using 1633 selected 1°×1° fields of view obtained by the Imaging Proportional Counter (IPC) to provide ∼5% sky coverage, with some bias toward the Galactic plane, we are able to spatially resolve the background in the 0.16-3.5 keV spectral region on this angular scale. The moderate energy resolution of the IPC also enables us to characterize and produce maps of the background at different energies within the Einstein passband.