BVRIJHKphotometry of post-AGB candidates

Abstract

BVRIJHK photometric observations are presented for 27 post-AGB candidates. Almost all objects show a double peaked SED curve in the optical to far-infrared wavelengths. Seventeen objects were classified as post-AGB stars on the basis of their spectral type, location in the IRAS color-color diagram and SED. The physical parameters of the observed post-AGB stars, the inner radius of the detached shell, the mass of the shell and the distance were derived using the simple dust shell model. We compared our observational sequence of post-AGB objects to the theoretical evolutionary sequence (Schönberner [CITE]; Blöcker [CITE]) in the stellar temperatures versus age diagram. We found that two post-AGB stars, IRAS 05040+4820 and 08187-1905, have low stellar temperature with a large dynamical age of the dust shell. They appear to provide the first observational evidence that some low-mass stars bypass the planetary nebulae stage because of their slow increase in stellar temperature.