We have obtained V-band images of 72 galaxies from the B2 sample, with redshifts up to 0.2 and of low radio power. Accurate V-band total magnitudes were obtained for all the galaxies and the presence of morphological peculiarities was analysed. The luminosity and geometrical profiles of the elliptical galaxies were determined from ellipse fitting of the isophotes and are presented in the paper. Isophote deviations such as PA twisting, boxiness, diskiness, and off-centering are studied. Most of the ellipticals follow the r1/4 law, although three of them show excesses in the outer parts. In addition three B2 galaxies present a bright nucleus.
Acknowledgements
The Jacobus Kapteyn and the William Herschel Telescopes are operated by the Royal Greenwich Observatory at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias on behalf of the Science and Engineering Research Council of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. We thank Paola Parma for useful comments on the identification of some sources. Partial financial support was provided by DGICYT project PB92-0501 (JIGS), DGES project PB95-0122 and by the Comisión Mixta Caja Cantabria- Universidad de Cantabria. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laborartory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We are grateful to the referee, Reynier Peletier, for several suggestions on the presentation of the data.
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