2003A&A...408..141P

Garzon et al. (1997ApJ...491L..31G), Lopez-Corredoira et al. (1999AJ....118..381L) and Hammersley et al. (2000MNRAS.317L..45H) have identified in TMGS and DENIS data a large excess of stars at l=27° and b=0° which might correspond to an in-plane bar. We compared near infrared CAIN star counts and simulations from the Besancon Model of Galaxy on 15 fields between 15° and 45° in longitude and -2° and 2° in latitude. Comparisons confirm the existence of an overdensity at longitudes lower than 27° which is inhomogeneous and decreases very steeply off the Galactic plane. The observed excess in the star distribution over the predicted density is even higher than 100%. Its distance from the sun is estimated to be lower than 6kpc. If this overdensity corresponds to the stellar population of the bar, we estimate its half-length to 3.9±0.4kpc and its angle from the Sun-center direction to 45±9 degrees.