A target of gaseous polarized hydrogen was formed by injecting polarized hydrogen atoms (produced by Stern–Gerlach spin separation) into a storage cell consisting of a cylindrical tube open at both ends. The target was placed in a storage ring to study the target characteristics (nuclear polarization, target thickness, radiation resistance). A weak transverse guide field (5 G) was applied to define the polarization direction. When atoms in a single hyperfine state were selected, the nuclear polarization of the target was measured to be 0.80±0.02. The areal density of the target under these conditions was (5.5±0.2)×1013H/cm2, while for two spin states (applicable to experiments in high energy rings where a strong magnetic field can be applied to the target) the target thickness was found to be (8.2±0.3)×1013H/cm2. The target polarization was unaffected by prolonged exposure of the target to beams up to 1 mA. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.