A&A 376, 124-135 (2001)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20010931

Adaptive optics -band observations of the Galactic Center region

Y. Clénet¹, D. Rouan¹, E. Gendron¹, J. Montri², F. Rigaut³, P. Léna¹ and F. Lacombe<sup>1

1</sup>  Observatoire de Paris, DESPA, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92190 Meudon, France
²  ONERA, 29 avenue de la Division Leclerc, BP 72, 92322 Chatillon Cedex, France
³  Gemini Observatory, 670 N. A'ohoku Place, Hilo, Hawaii, 96720, USA

(Received 5 February 2001 / Accepted 20 June 2001 )

Abstract
L-band adaptive optics observations of the Galactic Center region have been performed in June 1999 and May 2000 at La Silla with the 3.6 m telescope, using the ADONIS adaptive optics system. In June 1999, we used a dedicated infrared wave-front sensor, RASOIR. This paper reports on the photometry and astrometry of more than 40 stars. Thanks to additional adaptive optics K-band observations made at CFHT, colour-magnitude diagrams have been constructed to identify individual sources with various types of stars known in this region (AGB, LPV, WC9, WN9/WN10, Ofpe/WN9, YSO). The so-called "cool slash" stars (Ofpe/WN9) appear to be numerous in the field and an estimation of the extinction coefficient towards the Galactic Center from the colours of these intrinsically weakly absorbed stars leads to A_K=2.7, which is among the lowest published values.

Key words: instrumentation: adaptive optics -- Galaxy: center -- infrared: stars -- extinction -- stars: population

Offprint request: Y. Clénet, yann.clenet@obspm.fr

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