Shashikiran Ganesh1 Umesh C. Joshi1, Kiran S.
Baliyan1, Alain Omont2 and Guy Simon3
1Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, 380009, India
2Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Paris, France
3Observatoire de Paris, Paris, France
Abstract. The inner regions of the Milky Way have received a lot of attention in recent years. Multiwavelength observations have been made at varying spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions. We have studied the inner regions of the Milky Way using data from the Infrared Space Observatory at mid infrared wavelengths, DENIS and 2MASS at near infrared wavelengths, etc. In the present contribution, we summarize results obtained from these studies. We discuss in particular the M16 star forming region for which complementary near infrared observations were made using the PRL NICMOS array on the 1.2m telescope at the Mt Abu IR Observatory.
Keywords: The Galaxy - extinction - galactic structure - stellar populations.