The Interpretation of Near-Infrared Star Counts at the South Galactic Pole

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Abstract
We present new deep K' counts of stars at the south Galactic pole (SGP) taken with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan's PICNIC camera to K' = 17.25. Star-galaxy separation to K' = 17.5 was accomplished effectively by using image profiles, because the pixel size used was 0509. We interpret these counts using the SKY model of the Galactic point-source sky and determine the relative normalization of halo to disk populations, and the location of the Sun relative to the Galactic plane, within the context of this model. The observed star counts constrain these parameters to be halo/disk ~ 1/900 and z⊙ = 16.5 ± 2.5 pc. These values have been used to correct our SGP galaxy counts for contamination by the point-source Galactic foreground.
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