2003/11/03 by P. A. James, N. S. Shane, N. Shane +16 · 7 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20031568
published as Astron.Astrophys. 414 (2004) 23-43 · 28 pages, 19 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. FITS-format R-band and H alpha plus [NII] images for all galaxies, and a version of the paper with full resolution figures, are available at http://www.astro.livjm.ac.uk/HaGS/
arxiv created 2003/11/03 · openalex publication_date 2004/01/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2022/08/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We discuss the selection and observations of a large sample of nearby galaxies, which we are using to quantify the star formation activity in the local Universe. The sample consists of 334 galaxies across all Hubble types from S0/a to Im and with recession velocities of between 0 and 3000 km s-1. The basic data for each galaxy are narrow band H[Nii] and R-band imaging, from which we derive star formation rates, H[Nii] equivalent widths and surface brightnesses, and R-band total magnitudes. A strong correlation is found between total star formation rate and Hubble type, with the strongest star formation in isolated galaxies occurring in Sc and Sbc types. More surprisingly, no significant trend is found between H[Nii] equivalent width and galaxy R-band luminosity. More detailed analyses of the data set presented here will be described in subsequent papers.