PLANETARY-NEBULAE WITH DENIS - CAPABILITIES FOR IMAGING NEBULAE

The Deep Near Infrared Southern Sky Survey (DENIS) is the first attemp t to survey the entire southern sky in the near infrared (NIR) range i n three bands (I, J and K-s; Epchtein et al. 1997). A lot of studies h ave been done on planetary nebulae (PNe) in the NIR throughout the las t decades. These investigations often use J, H and K bands. Thus the D ENIS survey will lead, due to different bands and to the total sky cov erage, to a new view on PNe in this wavelength domain. We demonstrate here the capabilities for the imaging of planetary nebulae with DENIS on basis of nebulae observed during the first phase of the survey. We also compare the results for NGC 3440 with deep high-resolution images obtained at the 100-inch Las Campanas duPont telescope. The DENIS dat a, being comparable to ISOCAM in spatial resolution (Cesarsky et al. 1 996), will also support investigation done at longer wavelengths by me ans of ISO (Kimeswenger et al. 1997a). We also assess the quality of p hotometry obtained with DENIS by comparison with literature results. I n regions with high background stellar confusion we are able to improv e on the photometry significantly in accuracy and reliability.