We present optical and near-infrared finding charts taken from the DSS and 2MASS surveys of 94 IRAS sources selected from the GLMP catalogue , and accurate astrometry ( \approx 0.2″ ) for most of them .
Selection criteria were very red IRAS colours representative for OH/IR stars with optically thick circumstellar shells and the presence of variability according to the IRAS variability index ( VAR > 50 ) .
The main photometric properties of the stars in this ‘ GLMP sample ’ are presented , discussed and compared with the correspondent properties of the ‘ Arecibo sample ’ of OH/IR stars studied nearlier .
We find that 37 % of the sample ( N = 34 ) has no counterpart in the 2MASS , implying extremely high optical depths of their shells .
Most of the sources identified in the 2MASS are faint ( K \ga 8 ) and are of very red colour in the near-infrared , as expected .
The brightest 2MASS counterpart ( K=5.3 mag ) was found for IRAS 18299–1705 .
Its blue colour H–K=1.3 suggests that IRAS 18299–1705 is a post-AGB star .
Few GLMP sources have faint but relatively blue counterparts .
They might be misidentifed field stars or stars that recently experienced a drop of their mass loss rates .
The ‘ GLMP sample ’ in general is made of oxygen-rich AGB stars , which are highly obscured by their circumstellar shells .
They belong to the same population as the reddest OH/IR stars in the ‘ Arecibo sample ’ .