Left. Three-colour image (J blue, H green, K_s red) of Pismis 24 and G353.2+0.9, obtained from the reduced SofI frames. Outlined, the HST/WFPC2 field. The border between the two sub-fields and the massive star N78 36 are also indicated. Right. For comparison, three-colour image of the same area obtained by combining the Spitzer/IRAC (short integration) frames at 3.6 μm (blue), 4.5 μm (green) and 8.0 μm (red). A colour version of this figure is available in the on-line edition.