A CATALOG OF DETAILED VISUAL MORPHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATIONS FOR 14,034 GALAXIES IN THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY

We present a catalog of detailed visual classifications for 14,034 galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 4 (DR4). Our sample includes nearly all spectroscopically targeted galaxies in the redshift range 0.01 < z < 0.1 down to an apparent extinction-corrected limit of g < 16 mag. In addition to T-Types, we record the existence of bars, rings, lenses, tails, warps, dust lanes, arm flocculence, and multiplicity. This sample defines a comprehensive local galaxy sample which we will use in future papers to study low-redshift morphology. It will also prove useful for calibrating automated galaxy classification algorithms. In this paper, we describe the classification methodology used, detail the systematics and biases of our sample, and summarize the overall statistical properties of the sample, noting the most obvious trends that are relevant for general comparisons of our catalog with previously published work.

[1]  S. Driver,et al.  The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue : morphological classification and bimodality in the colour-concentration plane , 2006, astro-ph/0602240.

[2]  Anna Pasquali,et al.  Galaxy Groups in the SDSS DR4. I. The Catalog and Basic Properties , 2007, 0707.4640.

[3]  Wolfgang Voges,et al.  The size distribution of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey , 2003, astro-ph/0301527.

[4]  S. Roweis,et al.  An Improved Photometric Calibration of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging Data , 2007, astro-ph/0703454.

[5]  The Host Galaxies of AGN , 2003, astro-ph/0304239.

[6]  Andrew A. West,et al.  Evolution of the Bar Fraction in COSMOS: Quantifying the Assembly of the Hubble Sequence , 2007, 0710.4552.

[7]  S. Roweis,et al.  K-Corrections and Filter Transformations in the Ultraviolet, Optical, and Near-Infrared , 2006, astro-ph/0606170.

[8]  V. Petrosian,et al.  Surface brightness and evolution of galaxies , 1976 .

[9]  The Broadband Optical Properties of Galaxies with Redshifts 0.02 < z < 0.22 , 2002, astro-ph/0209479.

[10]  A. Sandage.  The Hubble atlas of galaxies , 1961 .

[11]  Bruce G. Elmegreen,et al.  Galaxy Morphologies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: Dominance of Linear Structures at the Detection Limit , 2005 .

[12]  M. SubbaRao,et al.  The Luminosity Function of Morphologically Classified Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey , 2002, astro-ph/0212405.

[13]  Naoki Yasuda,et al.  A Catalog of Morphologically Classified Galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: North Equatorial Region , 2007, 0704.1743.

[14]  J. Brinkmann,et al.  Relationship between Environment and the Broadband Optical Properties of Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey , 2003, astro-ph/0310453.

[15]  L. Kewley,et al.  Theoretical Modeling of Starburst Galaxies , 2001, astro-ph/0106324.

[16]  Michael R. Merrifield,et al.  The Visibility of Galactic Bars and Spiral Structure at High Redshifts , 2002 .

[17]  E. Bertin,et al.  SExtractor: Software for source extraction , 1996 .

[18]  Neta A. Bahcall,et al.  The Dependence on Environment of the Color-Magnitude Relation of Galaxies , 2003, astro-ph/0307336.

[19]  R. Nichol,et al.  The dependence of star formation history and internal structure on stellar mass for 105 low‐redshift galaxies , 2002, astro-ph/0205070.

[20]  University of Cambridge,et al.  The evolution of barred spiral galaxies in the Hubble Deep Fields North and South , 1998 .

[21]  R. Nichol,et al.  The Galaxy Luminosity Function and Luminosity Density at Redshift z = 0.1 , 2002, astro-ph/0210215.

[22]  Timothy M. Heckman,et al.  The host galaxies of active galactic nuclei , 2003 .

[23]  S. Bamford,et al.  Galaxy bimodality versus stellar mass and environment , 2006, astro-ph/0607648.

[24]  Francisco Valdes,et al.  The Morphologies of Distant Galaxies. I. an Automated Classification System , 1994 .

[25]  G. Vaucouleurs,et al.  Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies , 2012 .

[26]  R. Nichol,et al.  The Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey , 2005 .

[27]  Max Tegmark,et al.  NYU-VAGC: a galaxy catalog based on new public surveys , 2004 .

[28]  E. al.,et al.  The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical summary , 2000, astro-ph/0006396.

[29]  J. Brinkmann,et al.  New York University Value-Added Galaxy Catalog: A Galaxy Catalog Based on New Public Surveys , 2005 .

[30]  V. Narayanan,et al.  Spectroscopic Target Selection in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: The Main Galaxy Sample , 2002, astro-ph/0206225.

[31]  J. Brinkmann,et al.  The physical properties of star-forming galaxies in the low-redshift universe , 2003, astro-ph/0311060.

[32]  A. Naim,et al.  A Comparative study of morphological classifications of APM galaxies , 1995 .

[33]  Puragra Guhathakurta,et al.  A catalog of digital images of 113 nearby galaxies , 1996 .

[34]  R. Nichol,et al.  Stellar masses and star formation histories for 105 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey , 2002, astro-ph/0204055.

[35]  G. de Vaucouleurs,et al.  Revised Classification of 1500 Bright Galaxies. , 1963 .

[36]  D. Crocker,et al.  The Outer Lindblad Resonance and the Morphology of Early Type Disk Galaxies , 1991 .

[37]  John E. Davis,et al.  Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Early Data Release , 2002 .