ACDS V10.0 - Detailed Description of VII/155

ACDS V10.0 - Mon Jan 20 12:31:29 CET 2025

| # Detailed Description of VII/155 : Third Reference Cat. of Bright Galaxies (RC3) (de Vaucouleurs+ 1991) |

Note : this is the description file of the original catalog. This HTML page corresponds well to the original description, but some minor changes in the format may have been introduced in the FITS output files in order to allow for arithmetic operations on quantities such as coordinates and times. h:m:s and d:m:s units are normally converted into degrees, and YYYY-MM-DD into julian days.
Similarly, some slight changes may have been introduced in the units; the value given in the HTML files supersedes the value indicated in the ReadMe file for this catalogue.

    VII/155     Third Reference Cat. of Bright Galaxies (RC3) (de Vaucouleurs+ 1991)
    ================================================================================
    Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies (RC3)
         de Vaucouleurs G., de Vaucouleurs A., Corwin H.G., Buta R.J.,
         Paturel G., Fouque P.
        <Springer-Verlag: New York, (1991)>
    ================================================================================
    ADC_Keywords: Galaxy catalogs

    Description:
         The University of Texas has revised its third edition of its
         catalogue of bright galaxies. This not only contains many more
         entries than the second edition (23,022) but substantially more
         information for each entry.

    Introduction:
         The original Harvard Survey of the External Galaxies brighter
         than the 13th magnitude, by H. Shapley and A. Ames (1932),
         included just 1,249 objects (of which five were not galaxies),
         with estimated photographic magnitudes and diameters from
         heterogeneous sources.

         The first Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies (RC1) (G. and
         A. de Vaucouleurs 1964), prepared between 1949 and 1963, included
         2,599 objects (six are not galaxies), over twice the number in
         the original Shapley-Ames catalogue. In addition to diameters,
         magnitudes, colors, and redshifts in relatively homogeneous
         systems, it gave revised classifications and detailed literature
         references from 1913 to 1963. (NGC 8 is a double star; NGC 4361
         is a planetary nebula; NGC 5396 is nonexistent, probably = NGC
         5375; IC 1308 is a H II region in NGC 6822; IC 3917 is
         nonexistent, probably a plate defect (M. Wolf 1905); and A2144 =
         Palomar 12 is a globular cluster.)

         The Second Reference Catalogue (RC2) (G. and A. de Vaucouleurs,
         and H. G. Corwin 1976), prepared between 1971 and 1975, included
         4,364 objects (two are not galaxies), for which it gave improved
         isophotal diameters and axis ratios in the D25 system, newly
         determined total magnitudes and colors in the UBV system,
         continuum and 21-cm radio magnitudes, HI index, and redshifts, as
         well as references to published photographs and a bibliography
         for the years 1964 to 1975. Both the First and Second Reference
         Catalogues are limited to galaxies with useful literature
         references and are incomplete beyond the Shapley-Ames limit.
         (A0733+02 = DDO 45 is a planetary nebula; A2143-21 = Palomar 12
         is a globular cluster.)

         The present, much enlarged Third Reference Catalogue of Bright
         Galaxies (RC3) attempts to be reasonably complete for galaxies
         having apparent diameters larger than 1 arcmin at the D25
         isophotal level and total B-band magnitudes BT brighter than
         about 15.5, with a redshift not in excess of 15,000 km/s. Objects
         of special interest, such as compact galaxies smaller than 1
         arcmin or fainter than magnitude 15.5, and those already in RC2,
         are also included. The number of RC3 objects meeting these
         conditions is 11,897. Additional objects meeting only the
         diameter or the magnitude condition, and objects of interest
         smaller than 1.00, fainter than 15.5, or with redshifts > 15,000
         km/s, bring the total to 23,022. (PGC 41636 and P65386 have been
         deleted since the catalogue was printed. The first is a globular
         cluster, Palomar 15, and the second is a duplicate entry for NGC
         6967.) These were extracted from the database of 73,197 galaxies
         maintained by G. Paturel at Lyons Observatory (Paturel et al.
         1989a,b). Data published prior to mid-1990 are included in the
         main RC3 table and appendices.

         As might be expected in a compilation of this size, a number of
         errors have been detected since this catalog was archived. These
         have been corrected by H. G. Corwin who submitted the current,
         corrected version. Any problems relating to the catalogue itself
         should be addressed to him:
               Dr. Harold G. Corwin, Jr.
               IPAC, M/S 100-22
               California Institute of Technology
               Pasadena, CA 91125

         Details of the reduction procedures, and Notes, References, and
         Appendices are in Volume 1 of the printed version of RC3,
         available from Springer-Verlag New York. Volumes 2 and 3
         (included in this distribution) are also be available from
         Springer-Verlag should you wish to have a printed and bound
         version of the complete catalogue. The user of this catalogue is
         referred to this source volume for notes, references to data on
         individual galaxies, and the important information contained in
         the appendices as well as a discussion of how the entries were
         derived.

         We ask that you acknowledge RC3 and its authors in any
         publication that results from your use of the Catalogue. You may
         also freely distribute unaltered electromagnetic copies of RC3 to
         friends and colleagues as long as a copy of this documentation -
         including this notice - accompanies the Catalogue. The printed
         version of RC3 is protected by copyright, and may not be
         reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the
         copyright holder, Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

    File Summary:

           FileName      Lrecl  Records   Explanations

    ×                   80        .   This file
    × ReadMe            80        .   This file
    × rc3              363    23011   The revised RC3 catalog
    × mtypes.tex        80      271   Explanations of Morphological Types

    See also:
         J/AJ/108/2128 : RC3 corrections and additions (Corwin+ 1994)

    Byte-by-byte Description of file:  rc3

       Bytes Format Units   Label     Explanations

       1-  2  I2    h       RAh      *Right Ascension B2000 (hours)
       3-  4  I2    min     RAm      *Right Ascension B2000 (minutes)
       5-  8  F4.1  s       RAs      *Right Ascension B2000 (sec. or min.)
          10  A1    ---     DE-       [-+] Sign of declination
      11- 12  I2    deg     DEd      *Declination B2000 (degrees)
      13- 14  I2    arcmin  DEm      *Declination B2000 (minutes)
      15- 16  I2    arcsec  DEs      *? Declination B2000 (seconds)
      18- 19  I2    h       RA1950h   Right Ascension 1950 (hours)
      20- 21  I2    min     RA1950m   Right Ascension 1950 (minutes)
      22- 25  F4.1  s       RA1950s  *Right Ascension 1950 (sec. or min.)
          27  A1    ---     DE1950-   [-+] Sign of declination 1950
      28- 29  I2    deg     DE1950d   Declination 1950 (degrees)
      30- 31  I2    arcmin  DE1950m   Declination 1950 (minutes)
      32- 33  I2    arcsec  DE1950s  *? Declination 1950 (seconds)
      35- 40  F6.2  deg     GLON     *Galactic longitude
      42- 47  F6.2  deg     GLAT     *Galactic latitude
      49- 54  F6.2  deg     SGLON     Supergalactic longitude on RC2 sys.
      56- 61  F6.2  deg     SGLAT     Supergalactic latitude on RC2 sys.
      63- 74  A12   ---     name     *Name
      75- 89  A15   ---     altname  *Alternate name
      91-104  A14   ---     desig     Other designation
     106-116  A11   ---     PGC      *PGC number
     118-124  A7    ---     type     *Type
     126-130  A5    ---     typesr   *Source of revised type
     132-135  F4.1  ---     T        *? T (Hubble stage)
     137-139  F3.1  ---     e_T       ? Mean error of T
     141-144  F4.1  ---     lumcl     ? Luminosity class (file "mtypes.tex")
     146-148  F3.1  ---     e_lumcl   ? Mean error on luminosity class
         150  I1    ---     o_lumcl   ? Num. of luminosity class estimates
     152-155  F4.2 [0.1arcmin] D25   *? Log D25
         156  A1    ---     u_D25     [?]? indicates Log D25 very uncer.
     158-160  F3.2 [0.1arcmin] e_D25 *? Mean error on log D25
     162-165  F4.2  ---     R25      *? Log R25 (isophotal diameter ratio)
         166  A1    ---     u_R25     [?]? indicates Log R25 very uncertain
     168-170  F3.2  ---     e_R25    *? Mean error on log R25
     172-175  F4.2 [0.1arcmin] Do    *? Log Do
     177-180  F4.2 [0.1arcmin] Ae    *? Log Ae (effective aperture)
     182-184  F3.2 [0.1arcmin] e_Ae   ? Mean error on log Ae
     186-188  I3    deg     PA       *? Position angle of the major axis
     190-194  F5.2  mag     BT       *? BT (total B magnitude)
         195  A1    ---     BT_code  *? BT code
     197-199  F3.2  mag     e_BT      ? Mean error on BT
     201-205  F5.2  mag     Bmag     *? mB (photographic magnitude)
     207-209  F3.2  mag     e_Bmag   *? Mean error on Bmag
     211-215  F5.2  mag     BoT      *? BoT
     217-221  F5.2 mag/arcmin2 m'25  *? m'25
     223-226  F4.2 mag/arcmin2 e_m'25  ? Mean error m'25
     228-232  F5.2 mag/arcmin2 m'e   *? m'e
     234-236  F3.2 mag/arcmin2 e_m'e  ? Mean error m'e
     238-242  F5.2  mag     mFIR     *? mFIR
     244-248  F5.2  mag     m21      *? m21
     250-251  F2.1  mag     e_m21     ? Mean error on m21
     253-256  F4.2  mag     B-VT     *? (B-V)T (total (B-V))
     258-260  F3.2  mag     e_B-VT    ? Mean error on (B-V)T
     262-265  F4.2  mag     B-Ve     *? (B-V)e (mean B-V within Ae)
     267-269  F3.2  mag     e_B-Ve    ? Mean error on (B-V)e
     271-274  F4.2  mag     B-VoT    *? (B-V)oT
     276-280  F5.2  mag     U-BT     *? (U-B)T (total (U-B))
     282-284  F3.2  mag     e_U-BT    ? Mean error on (U-B)T
     286-289  F4.2  mag     U-Be     *? (U-B)e
     291-293  F3.2  mag     e_U-Be    ? Mean error on (U-B)e
     295-298  F4.2  mag     U-BoT    *? (U-B)To
     300-304  F5.2  mag     HI       *? HI (neutral hydrogen index)
     306-309  F4.2  mag     Ai       *? Ai (internal B extinction)
     311-313  F3.2  mag     A21      *? A21 (HI self absorption)
     315-318  F4.2  mag     Ag       *? Ag (galactic extinction in B)
     320-322  I3    km/s    W20      *? W20
     324-325  I2    km/s    e_W20     ? Mean error on W20
     327-329  I3    km/s    W50      *? W50
     331-332  I2    km/s    e_W50     ? Mean error of W50
     334-338  I5    km/s    V21      *? V21 (heliocentric radial velocity)
     340-341  I2    km/s    e_V21     ? Mean error on V21
     343-347  I5    km/s    cz       *? Vopt= cz
     349-351  I3    km/s    e_cz      ? Mean error on Vopt
     353-357  I5    km/s    VGSR     *? VGSR
     359-363  I5    km/s    V3K      *? V3K

    Note on RAh, RAm, RAs, DEd, DEm, DEs, RA1950s and DE1950s:
       The right ascensions and declinations for the equinox 2000.0, are
       precessed from the 1950.0 position using the 1976 IAU constants
       (see, e.g., the Supplement to The Astronomical Almanac for 1984).
       These are given to 0.1 second of time and 1 arcsec when available,
       and to 0.1 minute of time and 1 arcmin otherwise (Section 3.1.a,
       page 11).
       The right ascensions originally given with an accuracy of 0.1min
       have been converted to seconds; such converted RAs and RAs1950
       values have no decimal, and the corresponding DEs and DEs1950
       are blank.
    Note on GLON and GLAT:
       The galactic coordinates given to 0.01, are calculated following
       the IAU 1958 prescription (Blaauw et al. 1960) with the North
       Galactic Pole at alpha = 12h49m , delta = +27 24 (1950), and the
       origin at alpha = 17h 42.4m, delta = -28 55 (1950).
    Note on name:
       Names (e.g., LMC, SMC) or NGC and IC designations.
    Note on altname:
       UGC (Nilson 1973), ESO (Lauberts 1982), MCG (Vorontsov-Velyaminov
       et al. 1962-1974), UGCA (Nilson 1974), and CGCG (Zwicky et al.
       1961-1968) designations, given in that order of preference. MCG
       designations not listed here are given in UGC and ESO.
    Note on PGC:
       PGC (Paturel et al. 1989a,b) designation. For cross identifications
       of various catalogues with the PGC, see Appendix 10, page 561.
    Note on type:
       Mean revised morphological type in the RC2 system, coded as in RC2
       (Section 3.3.a, page 13; see also file "mtypes.tex").
    Note on typesr:
       "V" indicates a classification by de Vaucouleurs; "4" indicates a
       ring galaxy classified by Buta on 4-meter plates.
    Note on T:
       Mean numerical index of stage along the Hubble sequence in RC2
       system (coded as explained in Section 3.3.c, page 16;
       see also file "mtypes.tex").
    Note on D25:
       Mean decimal logarithm of the apparent major isophotal diameter
       measured at or reduced to surface brightness level muB = 25.0 B/mag2,
       as explained in Section 3.4.a, page 21. The unit of D is 0.1
       arcmin to avoid negative entries.
    Note on e_D25:
       A "?" indicates a large, uncertain error.
    Note on R25:
       Mean decimal logarithm of the ratio of the major isophotal
       diameter, D25, to the minor isophotal diameter, D25, measured at or
       reduced to the surface brightness level muB = 25.0 B/mag2, and its
       mean error as explained in Section 3.4.b, page 26.
    Note on e_R25:
       A "?" indicates a large, uncertain error.
    Note on Ae:
       Decimal logarithm of the apparent diameter (in 0.1 arcmin) of the
       "effective aperture," the circle centered on the nucleus within
       which one-half of the total B-band flux is emitted, derived as
       explained in Section 3.4.c, page 28.
    Note on Do:
       Decimal logarithm of the isophotal major diameter corrected to
       "face-on" (i = 0), and corrected for galactic extinction to Ag = 0,
       but not for redshift, as explained in Section 3.4.d, page 29.
    Note on PA:
       Position angle, measured in degrees from north through east (all
       <180), taken when available from UGC, ESO, and ESGC (and in a few
       cases from H I data) (Section 3.5.a, page 30).
    Note on Ag:
       Galactic extinction in B-band magnitudes, calculated following
       Burstein and Heiles (1978a,b, 1982, 1984) as explained in Section
       3.5.b, page 30.
    Note on Ai:
       Internal extinction in B-band magnitudes (for correction to
       face-on), calculated from log R and T as explained in Section
       3.5.c, page 31.
    Note on A21:
       A21 = H I line self-absorption in magnitudes (for correction to
       face-on), calculated from log R and T greater or equal to 1 as
       explained in Section 3.5.d, page 32.
    Note on BT:
       BT = total (asymptotic) magnitude in the B system derived by
       extrapolation from photoelectric aperture- magnitude data, BAT, and
       from surface photometry with photoelectric zero point, BSTas
       explained in Section 3.6.a, page 32.
    Note on BT_code:
         "M" = BT is the weighted mean of BAT and BST,
         "S" = only surface photometry used
         "V" = BT is a V-band magnitude rather than a B-band magnitude
         "v" = the nucleus of the galaxy is variable.
         "*" indicates that deriving BAT would have required an
             extrapolation in excess of 0.75 mag.
    Note on Bmag and e_Bmag:
       Photographic magnitude and its mean error from Ames (1930), Shapley
       and Ames (1932), CGCG, Buta and Corwin (1986), and/or Lauberts and
       Valentijn (1989) reduced to the BT system as explained in Section
       3.6.b, page 37.
    Note on mFIR:
       Calculated from mFIR = -20.0 - 2.5 logFIR, where FIR is the far
       infrared continuum flux measured at 60 and 100 microns as listed in
       the IRAS Point Source Catalog (1987) II/125. For galaxies larger
        than 80 in RC2 and for the Virgo cluster area, resolved by the IRAS
        beam, integrated fluxes are taken from Rice et al.(1988) or Helou et
        al.(1988). See Section 3.6.c, page 43, for details.
    Note on BoT:
       Total "face-on" magnitude corrected for galactic and internal
       extinction, and for redshift as explained in Section 3.6.d, page
       44.
    Note on B-VT and U-BT:
       Total (asymptotic) color index in the Johnson B-V and U-B system,
       respectively, derived by extrapolation from photoelectric
       color-aperture data, and/or from surface photometry with a
       photoelectric zero point as explained in Section 3.7.a, page 45.
    Note on B-VoT and U-BoT:
       Total B-V and U-B color indices, respectively, corrected for
       galactic and internal extinction, and for redshift, as explained in
       Section 3.7.b, page 47.
    Note on B-Ve and U-Be:
       Mean B-V and U-B color indices, respectively, within the effective
       aperture Ae, derived by interpolation from photoelectric
       color-aperture data as explained in Section 3.7.a, page 45.
    Note on m'e:
       Mean B-band surface brightness in magnitudes per square arcmin
       (B-m/sm) within the effective aperture Ae, and its mean error,
       calculated by the relation m'e= BT + 0.75 + 5 logAe- 5.26. This m'e
       is statistically related to the effective mean surface brightness,
       mu'e (RC2, p. 31; Olson and de Vaucouleurs 1981), with which it
       coincides when log R = 0 (i = 0) (Section 3.8.a, page 49).
    Note on m'25:
       The mean surface brightness in magnitudes per square arcmin
       (B-m/sm) within the muB = 25.0 B-m/ss elliptical isophote of major
       axis log D25 and axis ratio log R25, defined as in RC2 (Equation
       21) by:
             m'25= BT +  delta(m25) + 5 logD25- 2.5 logR25- 5.26,
       where delta(m25) = 2.5 log LT/L25 = B25 - BT and is the magnitude
       increment contributed by the outer regions of a galaxy fainter than
       muB = 25.0B-m/ss and, its mean error. For details, see Section
       3.8.b, page 50.
    Note on m21:
       21-cm emission line magnitude defined by m21 = 21.6 - 2.5 log SH ,
       where SH is the measured neutral hydrogen flux density in units of
       10-24W/m2. For details, see Section 3.9.a, page 51.
    Note on W20 and W50:
       Neutral hydrogen line full width (in km/s) measured at the 20%
       level (I20/Imax) and the 50% level (I50/Imax), respectively, as
       explained in Section 3.9.b, page 51.
    Note on HI:
       Corrected neutral hydrogen index, which is the difference
       mo21-BoT between the corrected (face-on) 21-cm emission line
       magnitude and the similarly corrected magnitude in the BT system.
       Details are given in Section 3.9.c, page 52. Since m21 and BT are
       listed separately in columns 6 and 9, record 1, there is no need to
       print the uncorrected index.
    Note on V21:
       The mean heliocentric radial velocity derived from neutral hydrogen
       observations, as explained in Section 3.10.a, page 52.
    Note on cz:
       The mean heliocentric radial velocity, derived from optical
       observations, as explained in Section 3.10.b, page 53.
    Note on VGSR:
       The weighted mean of the neutral hydrogen and optical velocities,
       corrected to the "Galactic standard of rest", as explained in
       Section 3.10.c, page 54.
    Note on V3K:
       The weighted mean velocity corrected to the reference frame defined
       by the 3K microwave background radiation, as explained in Section
       3.10.d, page 55.

    NOTE: The references with many of the descriptions are to the page
          numbers in Volume 1 of the printed catalogue.

    Construction of the current version of the RC3:
       The RC3 was received electronically from Dr. Harold Corwin. It was
       transferred to a Dec-alpha work station for examination and then to
       a Cray computer for processing and archiving. Dr. Corwin also
       provided the introduction to the catalogue in LaTeX for the
       original version of the Third Reference Catalog. This introduction
       has been modified for the present document.

       Several changes were made in the catalogue. The printed version
       contained plus/minus signs. Since the eighth bit, which
       distinguishes special characters, tends to be dropped when the file
       is transferred electronically, these have all been removed; the
       meaning is obvious. The original version of the catalog contained
       four records for each galaxy. Those values in the same columns were
       often related. The catalog has been reformatted into a single
       record per galaxy and the order of the data has been changed to
       keep related information contiguous. Extra blank columns which
       resulted from the original structure have been removed, keeping a
       single blank between adjacent columns.

    Acknowlegements:
       We sincerely thank Dr. Harold Corwin for sending us the RC3 and the
       LaTeX version of the introduction. We also thank him for extensive
       advise during the production of the original document and for a
       careful reading of this final product. We thank Dr. Francois Ochsenbein
       for help in formatting this document.

    Historical Notes:
      * 16-Feb-1995: Documentation done by Nancy G. Roman [SSDOO/ADC]
      * 28-Oct-1995: the values of RA (1950 and 2000) originally reported with
        a 0.1 min were converted to seconds at CDS
        (see notes above on RAs and RAs1950)

    See also:
       VII/112 : RC2 Catalogue
       VII/119 : PGC Catalogue (Paturel et al., =1989A&AS...80..299P)
       J/A+AS/116/15 : Spiral galaxies global HI profiles (Kamphuis et al., 1996)

    ================================================================================
    (End)   Nancy G. Roman [SSDOO/ADC], Francois Ochsenbein [CDS]        16-Feb-1995