Abstract
Using the Haystack radio telescope, the authors searched for H2O maser emission toward 21 color-selected IRAS point sources. The color selection criteria were those proposed by Wouterloot and Walmsley (1986) for H2O masers. The authors detected 9 masers, of which 7 are new detections. The detection rate of 43% is significantly higher than those obtained in previous surveys of IRAS sources and indicate that the criteria of Wouterloot and Walmsley can be used for the efficient detection of new water masers. One of the masers detected by the authors, that associated with IRAS 21144+5430, is very bright and overluminous with respect to the IRAS luminosity of the region. Its large negative radial velocity suggests it is located in the Perseus arm, at a distance of 4 to 6 kpc, which would make it one of the most luminous water masers in the Galaxy. The authors observed this region with the Very Large Array and set an upper limit of 0.3 mJy for the 6-cm continuum emission in the vicinity of the maser.
