Near Infrared Observations of the Local Arm

Abstract

Observations of the Local Arm have been carried out in the near-infrared with the 1.5 m ``Carlos S\'anchez'' telescope in Tenerife. A model of the disc with adjustable parameters fitted to reproduce the DIRBE-COBE survey, has been subtracted from the observational data in order to obtain a clean map of the Local Arm, uncontaminated by other components of the disc. The arm is more than 70 pc over the plane and is wider than 200 pc. At a latitude of about $80^\circ$ the deviation of the arm from the the galactic plane is so large that was only partially observed with our observational window of $\triangle b = \pm 6^\circ$. The elevation over the plane vanishes and the width decreases as the Arm comes closer to the Sun.