The de Vaucouleurs Atlas of Galaxies is an ambitious project to fully document the de Vaucouleurs revised Hubble galaxy classification system (published in Handbuch der Physik, Volume 53, page 275, 1959) with modern digital images of high quality. Although built within the framework of the older Hubble system, de Vaucouleurs' system represents a point of view that has served astronomy well. The main goals of the project are to:

- review the de Vaucouleurs revised Hubble galaxy classification system and its advantages in context of modern knowledge

- illustrate with modern CCD images all de Vaucouleurs types and show what his notation means

- provide modern interpretations of the features defining de Vaucouleurs types

- describe extensions or revisions to the system

- cover other aspects of galaxy morphology that have come to the forefront since de Vaucouleurs published his ideas on morphology

- provide a reference atlas for studies of high redshift galaxies

- provide a general review of galaxy classification and morphology, building on previous works

We are soliciting images for publication in the Atlas. We need high quality images of the following kinds:

- Deep, wide-field, blue-light (B-band or near B-band) CCD images that show faint isophotes of the outer disks. By "wide-field", we mean that the galaxy is fully included in the frame of the CCD image, with an adequate amount of sky background, although good quality mosaics could still be useful. In addition to the B-band, one additional longer wavelength broadband color would be useful for the construction of color index maps and for illustration of the variance or invariance of galaxy morphology with increasing broad-band wavelength.

- The ideal pixel scale for medium-sized galaxies (diameters from 4-10 arcminutes) is 0.2-0.7 arcseconds/pixel. Large galaxies (greater than 15 arcminutes in diameter) could have scales of 1-2 arcseconds/pixel and still have reasonably good resolution for the atlas.

- We prefer bright galaxies that have a photoelectric B-band total magnitude available in the Third Reference Catalog of Bright Galaxies. For such galaxies, we can derive approximate zero points in B from published photoelectric aperture photometry, unless image owners have zero points that we can use. We need zero points to insure homogeneity of the illustrations. We are illustrating all entries in the atlas in units of magnitudes per square arcsecond, to a surface brightness level of 26.0 mag/arcsec**2 in the B-band. The images need to be deep enough to reveal that level with minimal noise. If you are not sure of the depth of your images, use the following quick way to determine your limiting isophote.

- We need images of the full range of de Vaucouleurs revised Hubble types, from E to Im and also de Vaucouleurs families (SA, SAB, SB) and varieties (r, rs, and s). At this time, we have a fairly good supply of illustrations of intermediate- to late-type spiral galaxies. We request good quality images of any de Vaucouleurs type, but are lacking in a sufficient number of high quality images of Es, S0s, and dwarf spheroidals, particularly well-known examples. At the end of this webpage are several "wish lists" of galaxies that would be useful for this project.

- We are especially interested in deep, full-field B-band CCD images of major galaxies like M31, M33, M82, M101, NGC 1313, NGC 1365, NGC 4631, NGC 4565, NGC 4945, NGC 5128, the LMC, and SMC, etc. High quality images of such big galaxies obtained by amateurs would be welcome for consideration.

- Normal, mostly non-interacting galaxies are preferred for illustrations, but mildly interacting galaxies can still be useful if the de Vaucouleurs types are still recognizable. De Vaucouleurs was interested in interacting galaxies and some should be illustrated in this atlas.

- The best images for us to work with would be flat-fielded, bias-corrected FITS images. They do not necessarily have to be sky-subtracted, and should not be cleaned of foreground stars. We want foreground stars in all images. We will do all processing needed for the atlas. We cannot use pre-existing jpg, tiff, or other kinds of images since we are preparing the images in units of mag/arcsec**2 to a specific surface brightness level. We need FITS images for processing with the IRAF package of programs. No images will be illustrated in raw intensity units and, tentatively at least, none or only a few will be illustrated in color. The bulk of the atlas will be black and white B-band images.

- We can download any images via the internet. If you can place them into an anonymous ftp site, we can retrieve them. Wide field images (say 1024x1024 or 2048x2048) can be considered, but if there are many of them it might be necessary to send a CD or 8mm or 4mm tapes, if observers did not mind doing so.

- We of course prefer to use the best CCD images we can obtain for the atlas, and hence images obtained under the best observing conditions (seeing, transparency) will get the most consideration. However, images obtained under less than ideal observing conditions might still be useful.

- All observers who supply images that we use in the atlas will be fully acknowledged. To use an image, we would need information on the observers/PIs responsible for obtaining the images, the telescope/observatory used for the observation, the image pixel scale, the integration time, and the filter if such information is not already available in the image header. If the image pixel scale is not known we can derive it, but if it is known, please transmit the information to save us the extra work. Also, it would be useful to know the directions of north and east on the images, although we can determine these directions also if necessary. Note that we cannot offer any monetary compensation for any images used. All images will be used strictly for illustration and discussion of classification and morphology within de Vaucouleurs revised Hubble system.

The de Vaucouleurs Atlas of Galaxies is intended to be a high quality reference work for both students and professionals. By exclusively using images from electronic detectors, it will be the first major galaxy atlas geared to illustrating classical revised Hubble types using today's standard imaging methods, as opposed to photographic plates. In addition to the atlas of images, the atlas will also highlight what has been learned about the features defining galaxy morphology since the 1960s.

The Atlas is scheduled to be published by Cambridge University Press. Ideally, we would like to receive images before May 31, 2004. Observers should feel free to contact any of the authors below. The preliminary atlas website is

Thank you very much!

Ron Buta
buta@sarah.astr.ua.edu

Harold Corwin
hgcjr@ipac.caltech.edu

Steve Odewahn
stephen.odewahn@asu.edu

Atlas Galaxies

The following samples were selected from the Third Reference Catalog of Bright Galaxies (G. de Vaucouleurs, A. de Vaucouleurs, H. G. Corwin, Jr., R. J. Buta, G. Paturel, and P. Fouque, 1991). Selections were based on apparent blue light magnitude and blue light isophotal diameter.

Table 1: Large Galaxies, All Types

Table 2: Bright Elliptical Galaxies

Table 3: Bright E⁺Galaxies

Table 4: Bright S0^-Galaxies

Table 5: Bright S0^oGalaxies

Table 6: Bright S0⁺Galaxies

Table 7: Bright Irregular and Magellanic Spiral Galaxies

Home Page for Atlas Project