Far infrared observations of pre-protostellar sources in Lynds 183

Using ISOPHOT maps at 100 and 200 (mu)m and raster scans at 100, 120, 150 and 200 (mu)m we have detected four unresolved far-infrared sources in the high latitude molecular cloud L 183. Two of the sources are identified with 1.3 mm continuum sources found by Ward-Thompson et al. (1994, 2000) and are located near the temperature minimum and the coincident column density maximum of dust distribution. For these two sources, the ISO observations have enabled us to derive temperatures (~ 8.3 K) and masses (~1.4 and 2.4 M...). They are found to have masses greater than or comparable to their virial masses and are thus expected to undergo gravitational collapse. We classify them as pre-protostellar sources. The two new sources are good candidates for pre-protostellar sources or protostars within L 183.