The NICMOS snapshot survey of nearby galaxies

We present "snapshot" observations with the Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) of 94 nearby galaxies from the Revised Shapley Ames Catalog. Images with 0." 2 resolution were obtained in two filters, a broadband continuum filter (F160W, roughly equivalent to the H band) and a narrowband filter centered on the Pa alpha line (F187N or F190N, depending on the galaxy redshift) with the 51 " x 51 " held of view of the NICMOS camera 3. A first-order continuum subtraction is performed, and the resulting line maps and integrated Pa alpha line fluxes are presented. A statistical analysis indicates that the average Pa alpha surface brightness in the central regions is highest in early-type (Sa-Sb) spirals.