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| Catalogue of Southern Galaxies | |
|---|---|
| Name | Catalogue of Southern Galaxies |
| Author | Bruno de Vaucouleurs |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English language |
| Subject | Astronomy |
| Genre | Catalog |
| Publisher | University of Texas |
| Pub date | 1966 |
Catalogue of Southern Galaxies The Catalogue of Southern Galaxies is a astronomical compendium that documents galaxies visible from the southern celestial hemisphere, compiled to complement northern surveys and support research at observatories in the Southern Hemisphere. It was prepared to assist observers at institutions such as the Mount Stromlo Observatory, Siding Spring Observatory, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, and South African Astronomical Observatory, and to serve the needs of projects involving International Astronomical Union coordination, European Southern Observatory programs, and catalog cross-identification with northern resources like the New General Catalogue and Index Catalogue. The catalogue has informed studies by researchers affiliated with Harvard College Observatory, Palomar Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory, and university departments at University of Cape Town, Monash University, University of Chile, and University of Sydney.
The Catalogue was conceived amid mid-20th-century efforts led by figures such as Bruno de Vaucouleurs, Gérard de Vaucouleurs (note: related research), and collaborators from University of Texas at Austin, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh. It aimed to provide systematic identifications, positions, morphological types, magnitudes, and sizes for thousands of galaxies south of the celestial equator, enabling comparison with northern compilations like the Messier catalog and facilitating follow-up by facilities such as Anglo-Australian Telescope, Very Large Telescope, and Hubble Space Telescope programs.
Compilation combined photographic plate surveys from projects including the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, southern plate campaigns at Mount Wilson Observatory, and later digital surveys tied to Two Micron All-Sky Survey and archival material from the European Space Agency holdings. Inclusion criteria emphasized declination limits south of the celestial equator, measurable angular diameter, and morphological classification standards consistent with schemes used by Edwin Hubble, Allan Sandage, and Walter Baade. Cross-identification practices referenced designations from the New General Catalogue, Principal Galaxies Catalogue, and the Uppsala General Catalogue when applicable, while photometric calibrations used standards from Landolt photometric standard stars and spectroscopic anchors associated with Henry Draper Catalogue stars.
Entries typically contain equatorial coordinates tied to the FK4 system, visual and photographic magnitudes, major and minor axis measurements, morphological type using the Hubble sequence and modifications from de Vaucouleurs system, radial velocities where available from sources like the Copenhagen University Observatory and radio surveys at Arecibo Observatory (for northern counterparts) and southern radio facilities such as the Parkes Observatory. The catalogue includes cross-references to designations in the ESO lists, IRAS source matches, and noted peculiarities recorded by observers from Observatoire de Paris and Mount Stromlo. Appendices outline notation conventions, coordinate precession instructions used in publications by J. H. Oort and calibrations inspired by work at Carnegie Institution for Science.
The Catalogue records southern examples of important galaxies and systems including objects associated with Large Magellanic Cloud, Small Magellanic Cloud, the Fornax Cluster, Centaurus A (NGC 5128), NGC 253, NGC 300, NGC 1316 (Fornax A), and members of the Sculptor Group. It cross-lists active nuclei discovered in follow-up programs tied to Seyfert galaxies research by teams influenced by Carl Seyfert and radio galaxies noted in surveys by John Bolton and G. Bruce L. Ealey. Several entries later served as targets for Richard Ellis, Sandra Faber, John Kormendy, and groups using instruments at Keck Observatory, Gemini Observatory, and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array.
Data sources combined classical photographic plate measurement techniques developed at Royal Greenwich Observatory and modern CCD photometry pioneered at Bell Labs-associated facilities, with radial velocities measured via spectrographs similar to those at Las Campanas Observatory and Anglo-Australian Observatory. Radio follow-up employed facilities such as Parkes Observatory and interferometry from arrays linked to Very Long Baseline Array collaborators. Infrared identifications referred to surveys by Infrared Astronomical Satellite teams and later WISE mission collaborations tied to NASA research centers and university groups at California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Catalogue has been used in extragalactic research ranging from large-scale structure mapping associated with the Local Supercluster and Great Attractor studies to luminosity function measurements that informed work by Allan Sandage and G. de Vaucouleurs. It facilitated redshift surveys feeding projects by the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey and influenced preparatory target lists for Sloan Digital Sky Survey northern complements. Its cross-identifications aided gravitational lens searches pursued by teams led by Bruno Leibundgut and R. Lynds and contributed to environmental studies of clusters like Fornax Cluster and Centaurus Cluster by observers at European Southern Observatory and the Australian National University.
First published in the 1960s, subsequent updates and electronic transcriptions have been incorporated by institutions such as Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg and mirrored in catalog aggregators like VizieR. Later revisions aligned with coordinate precession standards adopted by the International Astronomical Union and databases maintained by NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database teams, while modern cross-matching routines employ software developed at Space Telescope Science Institute and data-processing approaches from Astrophysics Data System collaborations.
Category:Astronomical catalogues