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Full Iso-Lws spectral scans between about 45 to 190 μm of 17 individual HH objects in 7 star forming regions have revealed essentially only [O I] 63 μm line emission, implying that the Fircooling of these objects is totally dominated by this line alone. In this case, J-shock models can be used to determine the mass loss rates of the HH exciting sources. These mass loss rates are in reasonably good agreement with those estimated for the accompanying CO flows, providing first observational evidence that HH and molecular flows are driven by the same agent. The Lmech – Lbol relation, based on our results with the Lws, implies that young stellar objects of lower mass are loosing mass at relatively higher rates than their more massive counterparts.

The results of several photometric campaigns (1986–1993) in the near IR of the six bright BL Lac objects 3C 66A, PKS 0422+004, PKS 0735+178, PKS 0754+100, PKS 0829+046 and OQ 530 are presented. The observations were carried out at the 1.5 m Italian IR Telescope at Gornergrat (TIRGO − 3150 m a.s.l.) equipped with a IR photometer using a InSb detector cooled at the solid nitrogen temperature and the standard J, H, K filters. The principal aims of our program are the search of rapid variability (typical time scales of 1 day or less) and of correlations between the flux level (typically in the J band, where the largest variation amplitude is found) and the spectral slope. In the following we summarize some relevant results.

An all-sky 12μm flux-limited sample of 392 galaxies has been selected from the IRAS Point Source Catalog. More than 20% of the sample harbor active nuclei (with Seyfert 1 or 2 or LINER emission-line spectra). Thus one byproduct of this work is the definition of a large complete sample of bright active galaxies, with roughly equal percentages of Sy 1's, Sy 2's and LINERs. Since we now have virtually all (93%) the redshifts for the sample galaxies, the far-infrared luminosity functions of all classes of galaxies have been derived using IRAS coadded data. Since our luminosity functions for Sy 1 and Sy 2 are indistinguishable from those of the optically selected CfA sample, the 12μm selection appears to be an efficient and complete technique for finding active galactic nuclei. Optical spectrophotometry and near-IR photometry of the sample is being obtained to compute accurate bolometric luminosities.

Using an InSb photometer/spectrophotometer attached to the 1-m ESO telescope (La Silla, Chile), we searched for the near-infrared emission from the Sharpless regions S269, S271, S307, and S311. These regions appear on the Palomar Sky Survey red plates, as bright visible nebulae, and have extended radio continuum emission.

NGC 3576 (RCW 57) is a very bright optically visible nebula (~10' in size) located near the galactic plane at a distance of 3.6kpc. The region is associated with the HII region G291.28–0.71 (Retallack & Goss), and with a giant molecular cloud of M≃9×104 M⊙ (Cheung et al.1980) The source is reported in the IRAS Small Scale Structure Catalog. From the observed far-IR fluxes we derive a total luminosity of L(FIR)≃7×105 L⊙, suggesting that at least seven possible 07–09 stars could ionize the entire observed region. A cluster of five IR sources and extended 10μm emission were found by Frogel & Persson (1974). IRS 1 is a very compact object (2O maser source and NH3 emission are present in the complex region.We present multidiaphragm photometry from 1 to 20μm of 1RS 1, IRS 3 and IRS 4 and CVF observations between 2-μm and 8–13μm of IRS 1, collected at the 1m and 3.6m ESO telescopes.

We have observed 117 faint planetary nebulae in the J, H, K, and sometimes L and M bands. The objects are all listed in the Perek-Kouteck (PK) catalogue and were observed by IRAS.