High Resolution Infrared Survey of the Southern Sky

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We have obtained unprecedented data of the southern sky, attaching the 3-band simultaneous infrared camera SIRIUS on the 1.4-m telescope constructed at South African Astronomical Observatory.We first compared the mass functions of the star-forming regions such as W3 and NGC7538 with the newly obtained southern star-forming regions in the first publications. Next, in the Lupus dark cloud, we obtained infrared images down to very faint levels, and found a shining nebula in the near-infrared. We concluded that the nebula reflects the background starlight ; the size distribution of the dust grains should stretch to fairly large sizes, which constrains the evolution of the dust grains in dark clouds.In the star-forming region S269, we found a large number of infrared sources.From the survey of the Vela giant molecular cloud, we discovered an extremely dense cluster of young (2-3Myr) stars. It has an about 0.5pc radius and at least 350 stars, with the heavier stars toward the center. We surveyed M16 and M17, where high mass stars are forming, and also the star-forming regions Chamaeleon and Ophiucus.The Great Attractor region was also surveyed for the galaxies behind the Galactic plane. The survey of the 30-arcmin region abound the radio galaxy PKS1343-601 produced several dozens of galaxies, but the number of them is far from a rich cluster of galaxies.