The CO Survey
of Nearby Galaxies with Nobeyama and CARMA
Studies of the interstellar medium (ISM) in external galaxies, particularly in the form of molecular clouds, lend insight into the galaxies' large-scale kinematics as well as processes on smaller scales, like star formation. We have undertaken a high-resolution CO survey of 17 nearby spiral galaxies with Nobeyama and CARMA, using a newly developed technique for the combination of interferometry and single dish information, in order to quantify the galaxies' molecular ISM. I will discuss our survey and new data combination technique as well as detail some early results, including a detailed description of the CO-to-H2 conversion factor observed in NGC 6946, the flagship galaxy from our survey.