THE STRUCTURE OF THE DUST SHELLS AROUND IRC+10216

We have investigated IRC +10216 using a long-slit mid-infrared spectro meter and modeling the circumstellar dust distribution with a radiativ e transfer algorithm. Maximum entropy reconstructions of the spectral images made with the slit oriented north/south and east/west reveal th ree components. Two shells of cool carbon-rich dust are seen, as well as a region of blue emission between the shells, similar to 1'' north of the central source. The dust shell structure agrees well with previ ous interferometric observations: a circularly symmetric inner shell e nclosed within an outer shell elongated roughly north/south. The blue emission appears to arise from a region of small grains of radiatively heated amorphous carbon and implies that the polar regions of the inn er shell are optically thinner than the equatorial regions.