Program: GS-2004A-Q-56

We request T-ReCS observations of two bright, optically bipolar protoplanetary nebulae. Both objects have been extensively observed using the Hubble Space Telescope and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, but have not been resolved in the mid-infrared when observed at 2.5-meter class telescopes. The combination of sensitivity and angular resolution afforded by Gemini should allow us to resolve the asymmetrical dust shells of these objects, and thereby along with the optical images give us a clear picture of the morphology of the nebulae. By doing so we will gain insight into the mass loss processes that have formed these bipolar nebulae. In particular we are hoping to explicitly show that the optical lobes correspond to cavities in the larger circumstellar dust shell, as has been widely assumed from modelling of the optical images of these nebulae but never demonstrated directly.