DENIS Observations of Multibeam Galaxies in the Zone of Avoidance

Roughly 25% of the optical extragalactic sky is obscured by the dust and stars of our Milky Way. Dynamically important structures might still lie hidden in this zone. Various surveys are presently being employed to uncover the galaxy distribution in the Zone of Avoidance (ZOA) but all suffer from (different) limitations and selection effects. We illustrate the promise of using a multi-wavelength approach for extragalactic largescale studies behind the ZOA, i.e., a combination of three surveys – optical, systematic blind H I and near-infrared (NIR), which will allow the mapping of the peculiar velocity field in the ZOA through the NIR Tully – Fisher relation. In particular, we present here the results of cross-identifying H I-detected galaxies with the DENIS NIR survey, and the use of NIR colours to determine foreground extinctions.