THE ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL    VOLUME 109, NUMBER 4, PAGE 1608          APRIL 1995

       NEAR-INFRARED SURFACE PHOTOMETRY AND MORPHOLOGY IN VIRGO CLUSTER
                         SPIRAL GALAXY NUCLEAR REGIONS

                              BERNARD J. RAUSCHER

     The University of Chicago, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics,
               5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637
                   Electronic mail: bjr@oddjob.uchicago.edu


                                   ABSTRACT

    This paper presents very high spatial resolution (seeing 0.75 arcsec
    FWHM) K band surface photometry of 15 Virgo cluster spiral galaxy
    nuclear regions (radii <1 kpc).  It presents B and I band CCD images of
    13 of these galaxies.  The goals of the study were: (1) to begin to
    establish a K band baseline of normal spiral galaxy nuclear regions
    against which peculiar galaxies may be compared, (2) to provide better
    constraints on N-body models, and (3) to complement near-infrared
    studies of large scale structure in spiral galaxies with very high
    resolution imaging of the important nuclear regions.  The principal
    findings are: (1) between 1/4 and 1/3 of these nuclear regions show K
    band evidence of triaxiality, (2) approximately 1/2 of these galaxies
    have axisymmetric nuclear regions, and (3) NGC 4321 has a bar that is
    not detectable in the optical images.