NIR view on young stellar clusters in nearby spirals
  Observations in the near-infrared (NIR) allow a detailed study of young
stellar clusters in grand-design spiral galaxies which in visual bands often
are highly obscured by dust lanes along the arms. Deep JHK-maps of 10 spirals
were obtained with HAWK-I/VLT. Data for NGC 2997 are presented here to
illustrate the general results for the sample.
  The (H-K)-(J-H) diagrams suggest that most stellar clusters younger than 7
Myr are significantly attenuated by dust with visual extinctions reaching 7
mag. A gap between younger and older cluster complexes in the (J-K)-Mk diagram
indicates a rapid reduction of extinction around 7 Myr possibly due to
expulsion of dust and gas after supernovae explosions. The cluster luminosity
function is consistent with a power law with an exponent alpha ~ 2. Cluster
luminosities of Mk = -15 mag are reached, corresponding to masses close to 10^6
Mo, with no indication of a cut-off. Their azimuthal angles relative to the
main spiral arms show that the most massive clusters are formed in the arm
regions while fainter ones also are seen between the arms. Older clusters are
more uniformly distribution with a weaker modulation relative to the arms.
