High-resolution images of the Galactic Centre

We present grey-scale images of the central 45 arcsec2 region around the Galactic Centre in linear and logarithmic form. These were made at 1 arcsec resolution at the wavelength of 2.2 µm. The region is resolved into a great number of point sources whose distribution peaks strongly on the non-thermal radio source. Several gaps in the distribution are attributed to intervening dark globules. The surface brightness distribution appears cusped. If this represents an isothermal spherical distribution of stars, then its innermost core must be smaller than that of any globular cluster, and very much smaller than that of M31. Alternatively, a large, compact mass lies within the central 2 arcsec. The luminosity function of the point sources resembles that in Baade's window and is steeper than that of the old disc population, suggesting a deficiency of the more massive asymptotic giant branch stars.