High angular resolution observations in the near infrared and modeling of the peculiar envelope of HD 62623

We report new observations: of the peculiar star HD 62623 obtained with ape rture masking interferometry performed on the Keck I telescope at lambda = 1.24, 1.65, 2.26 and 3.08 mum. The envelope around this star appears partia lly resolved in the near infrared except at 1.65 mum. Radiative transfer mo deling of the dust shell of this star has been performed in spherical geome try. This modeling has two goals: it provides a framework for understanding the partially resolved object shown by the visibility curves, and it allow s investigation of the envelope of HD 62623 by discrimination between propo sed models. We show that reasonable fits to photometric observations can be obtained with a simple spherically symmetric silicate dust shell. Neverthe less, our high angular resolution measurements bring some important constra ints on the modeling of the circumstellar environment of HD 62623. More rea listic model involving the presence of a non spherically distributed dust e nvelope including the gas component in the circumstellar environment is req uired.