Marc Seigar, JAC (Hilo)

	Dust Penetrated Arm Classes: A near-infrared classification scheme for
	spiral galaxies"

Abstract: In the last decade, near-infrared imaging has highlighted that
spiral galaxies often have a difference in morphology between the optical
and infrared. Galaxies that appear flocculent in the optical often show
 Grand-Design spiral in the near-infrared. Also, the Hubble classification
scheme does not provide a good way to classify galaxies in the
near-infrared, as it has been shown that spiral arm pitch angles (when
measured in the near-infrared) do not correlate with Hubble type. I will
introduce a new classification scheme, known as the dust-penetrated class,
in which galaxies are classified into one of three bins, determined by
their near-infrared pitch angles. I will also present rotation curve data
for these galaxies and show that the derived mass distributions (as
determined from the rotation curves) correlate with the near-infrared
pitch angles. As an aside I will also present 2MASS imaging of M33,
highlighting and outer arc of carbon stars. M33 will provide an ideal
target for wide format infrared cameras, such as WIRCam.