ASCA Observations of OAO 1657−415 and its Dust-Scattered X-Ray Halo

We report on two ASCA observations of the high-mass X-ray binary pulsar OAO 1657−415. A short observation near mid-eclipse caught the source in a lowintensity state, with a weak continuum and iron emission dominated by the 6.4-keV fluorescent line. A later, longer observation found the source in a high-intensity state and covered the uneclipsed through mid-eclipse phases. In the high-intensity state, the non-eclipse spectrum has an absorbed continuum component due to scattering by material near the pulsar and 80 per cent of the fluorescent iron emission comes from less than 19 lt-sec away from the pulsar. We find a dust-scattered X-ray halo whose intensity decays through the eclipse. We use this halo to estimate the distance to the source as 7.1± 1.3 kpc.