Galaxies with the DENIS 2 Micron Survey: A Preliminary Report

The DENIS $IJK$ survey of the entire southern sky is beginning observations this year. It will return one million images, representing 4 Terabytes, among which nearly ${10}^8$ stars and up to one million galaxies. The main extragalactic applications of such a multi-band, digital, near-IR 2D survey are listed, and the importance and feasibility of a spectroscopic followup are discussed. First estimates of the capabilities for galaxy extraction are given, and illustrated with preliminary images of three very bright galaxies.