The masses and origin of carbon stars

An attempt is made to answer some pertinent questions about carbon stars: (1) at what stage of stellar evolution does the carbon abundance phase occur (2) do all stars pass through this stage (3) is the phase significant in the overall picture of galactic nucleosynthesis. Two populous intermediate-age clusters in the Magellanic Clouds were observed and IR colors and magnitudes were obtained for many stars on the giant branches, including carbon stars. Metal abundances, ages, turnoff masses and carbon star numbers were found for the clusters. Some interesting observations are made concerning relative abundances.