Photographic surface photometry of galaxies in the Virgo cluster

Abstract

Surface photometry is one area of extragalactic studies in which information is urgently needed by optical as well as radio astronomers. The aim of this thesis is to supply some of the photometric parameters for 48 galaxies in two international colour systems. The reader will notice that descriptions are included of many detailed aspects of the work and little attention is paid to the more basic problems. This is because the discussion of the basic problems in photo-graphic photometry of galaxies formed the contents of an M.Sc. thesis.

Volume one is devoted to a detailed description of the methods used for the reduction techniques together with a discussion of the results, while volumes two and three contain the photometric data. In the first volume, the first chapter is concerned with previous investigations and the following chapter contains detailed descriptions of the instruments and methods used in the preliminary plate reductions. The subject of isophotometry is dealt with in the third chapter, while in the fourth and fifth chapters respectively, mention is made of the reduction techniques, together with conclusions which may be deduced from the photometric data. This information is given in volume two for those galaxies with NGC catalogue numbers from 4189 to 4459, while the data for objects from NGC 4461 to NGC 4762 are listed in the third volume of the thesis.