In two previous papers, we presented an isophotal shape analysis with morphological type estimates for a large number of galaxies in two clusters of galaxies. Our analyses, based on CCD images and photographic plates, concerned more than 200 galaxies in three regions of Coma (Andreon et al. 1996, hereafter Paper I) and about 100 galaxies in the Perseus cluster (Poulain et al. 1992). The aim of both works was to collect as many galaxies as possible in these two clusters for subsequent studies of galaxy properties (e.g. Michard 1996; Andreon 1994, 1996; Andreon et al. 1997). The galaxies observed with a CCD were selected mainly because they had previously been classified as early-type.
Once the data accumulate and the samples grow to a reasonable size, it becomes possible to trace some notable properties of the Hubble types, but we convinced ourselves that slight differences among the properties of the morphological types were not properly measured with incomplete samples. Using samples with various degrees of completeness, different authors have in fact reached different conclusions on many galaxy properties: on the galaxy mean surface brightness of the types (Andreon 1996), on the optical luminosity function of boxy Es and disky Es (Andreon 1994 and 1996), on the radio luminosity function of boE and diE (Lowen & Owen 1995). The two previously available samples of galaxies in Coma and Perseus, although large in size and almost complete in (small) selected areas and within restricted magnitude ranges, were not quite complete in magnitude. Therefore we decided to observe the galaxies unobserved in these previous surveys. We also reobserved some galaxies whose detailed morphological type was unsatisfactory.
Since it was beyond our observing capabilities to complete the two samples down to the magnitude of the faintest observed galaxy and out to the distance of the most peripheral galaxy, we set the more limited goal of completing our samples within an area and down to a magnitude limit that does not exclude too many faint galaxies already observed by our team and at the same time does not include an unreasonable number of new galaxies to be observed.
In order to complete the observation of the samples rapidly, we gave up the idea of obtaining independent morphologies from images in different passbands (e.g. V and r) and from different observing material (CCD images and small-scale plates), properties characterizing the two previous surveys. Furthermore, since high resolution conditions are not necessary for classifying spiral galaxies with obvious spirals arms, we also made use of Schmidt plates, thus innovating with respect to our two other papers.
The availability of a thinned CCD at the 2-meter Telescope Bernard Lyot (hereafter TBL), with a good quantum efficiency in blue and the fact that spiral galaxies are easier to classify in visible than in red, prompted us to observe the program galaxies in Johnson V, instead of Gunn r. The increased CCD quantum efficiency largely compensates for the decrease in luminosity of early-type galaxies from r to V, allowing us to image the program galaxies in V within the allocated telescope time.
The paper is organized as follow. We present the data completing the two samples of galaxies in Coma and in Perseus in Sect. 2. The techniques of analysis used in the present study are briefly summarized in Sect. 3. The results are given in the form of tables (Tables 2 (click here), 3 (click here), 4 (click here) and 5 (click here)) and are presented only in electronic form; the tables include global photometric and geometrical parameters as well as detailed morphological information, but not the photometric and geometrical profiles as a function of radius. Notes on individual galaxies are included in the Tables. An estimate of the quality of our measures is presented in Sect. 4, and the results of the paper are summarized in Sect. 5.
We adopt a Hubble constant of H0=50 km s-1 Mpc-1.