PINGS: the PPAK IFS Nearby Galaxies Survey
  We present the PPAK Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) Nearby Galaxies Survey:
PINGS, a 2-dimensional spectroscopic mosaicking of 17 nearby disk galaxies in
the optical wavelength range. This project represents the first attempt to
obtain continuous coverage spectra of the whole surface of a galaxy in the
nearby universe. The final data set comprises more than 50000 individual
spectra, covering in total an observed area of nearly 80 arcmin^2. In this
paper we describe the main astrophysical issues to be addressed by the PINGS
project, we present the galaxy sample and explain the observing strategy, the
data reduction process and all uncertainties involved. Additionally, we give
some scientific highlights extracted from the first analysis of the PINGS
sample.
