THE GRAVITATIONAL LENS MG-0414- A LINK BETWEEN RED GALAXIES AND DUST(0534 )

We present near-IR observations of the red gravitational lens system M G 0414 + 0534. Our images are of sufficient quality to allow photometr y of all four QSO images and the lens galaxy. The observations show th at the K-band brightnesses of the components are more similar to the r adio brightnesses than to the optical and thus support the notion that the system is highly reddened. The differing brightnesses at visible wavelengths are interpreted as variable amounts of extinction in the l ens galaxy. The lens galaxy is detected in the K band and is as red as any other known galaxy of comparable apparent magnitude. An estimate of the redshift of the lens galaxy of 0.45 < z < 0.6 is determined fro m the Faber-Jackson relation and photometric considerations. By extens ion, we argue that other very red field galaxies may contain large amo unts of dust. K-band spectra of the individual components show no diff erence in the H alpha equivalent widths among the components. This is evidence against significant microlensing.