NEAR-INFRARED OBSERVATIONS OF THE LOCAL ARM

Observations of the Local Arm have been carried out in the near-infrar ed with the 1.5 m ''Carlos Sanchez'' telescope in Tenerife. A model of the disc with adjustable parameters fitted to reproduce the DIRBE-COB E survey, has been subtracted from the observational data in order to obtain a clean map of the Local Arm, uncontaminated by other component s of the disc. The arm is more than 70 pc over the plane and is wider than 200 pc. At a latitude of about 80 degrees the deviation of the ar m from the galactic plane is so large that was only partially observed with our observational window of Delta b = +/-6 degrees. The elevatio n over the plane vanishes and the width decreases as the Arm comes clo ser to the Sun.