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Description
The Virgo Photometry Catalogue (VPC) contains independently calibrated surface photometry in the U, B_J_ and R_C_ bands for over 1000 galaxies (including background objects) brighter than B_J25_=19.0 in a 23{deg}^2^ area of the sky centred on R.A., Dec.(1950)= 12h26m, +13{deg}08'. The angular resolution of the photometry varies from band to band and was in each case determined from the FWHM of stellar profiles: 4.75+/-0.1arcsec in the U band, 5.0+/-0.1arcsec in the B_J_ band and 6.0+/-0.1arcsec in the R_C_ band. The photometry was intended for the derivation of accurate magnitudes and colours and is therefore not of high resolution. Stellar contamination of the galaxy sample is minimal, and cannot exceed about 3 faint-end objects in total (i.e. it is less than about 0.25%). Parameters listed for catalogued galaxies include: equatorial coordinates; morphological types; surface-brightness profile parameters (which preserve the majority of the surface photometry information); U, B_J_ and R_C_ isophotal magnitudes; U, B_J_, R_C_ and [transformed] B total magnitudes; (U-B_J_) and (B_J_-R_C_) equal-area colours, apparent angular radii, ellipticities, position angles, heliocentric radial velocities and alternative designations. All total magnitudes and total colours are extrapolated according to the "t" system of Young et al. (1998A&AS..130..173Y). The VPC is based primarily on four UK-Schmidt plates, all of which were scanned using the COSMOS measuring machine at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. All magnitudes, colours and surface-brightness parameters are derived from numerical integrations of segmented plate-scan data; except for (in 109 cases) saturated and (in 51 cases) inextricably merged images. The latter 51 images are listed in Table 14 (Appendix D) of the original paper, whilst data for the remaining 1129 objects [i.e. including ones for which the VPC photometry is saturated in one or more bands] are listed in the main catalogue.
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