The JCMT Nearby Galaxies Legacy Survey VII: H\alpha{} imaging and
  massive star formation properties
  We present H\alpha{} fluxes, star formation rates (SFRs) and equivalent
widths (EWs) for a sample of 156 nearby galaxies observed in the 12CO J=3-2
line as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Nearby Galaxies Legacy
Survey. These are derived from images and values in the literature and from new
H\alpha{} images for 72 galaxies which we publish here. We describe the sample,
observations and procedures to extract the H\alpha{} fluxes and related
quantities. We discuss the SFR properties of our sample and confirm the
well-known correlation with galaxy luminosity, albeit with high dispersion. Our
SFRs range from 0.1 to 11 Msun yr-1 with a median SFR value for the complete
sample of 0.2 Msun yr-1. This median values is somewhat lower than similar
published measurements, which we attribute, in part, to our sample being
HI-selected and, thus, not biased towards high SFRs as has frequently been the
case in previous studies. Additionally, we calculate internal absorptions for
the H\alpha{} line, A(H\alpha{}), which are lower than many of those used in
previous studies. Our derived EWs, which range from 1 to 880\AA{} with a median
value of 27\AA{}, show little dependence with luminosity but rise by a factor
of five from early- to late-type galaxies. This paper is the first in a series
aimed at comparing SFRs obtained from H\alpha{} imaging of galaxies with
information derived from other tracers of star formation and atomic and
molecular gas.
