A Spectroscopic Survey of Compact and Peculiar Galaxies

Low-dispersion spectrograms have been obtained for 141 objects in Zwicky's first five lists of compact galaxies. These 141 objects were largely but not completely selected for their blue appearance on the Sky Survey prints. Direct photographs were obtained at the 200-inch prime focus of a representative sample of thirty objects. Photoelectric observations were made for forty4our galaxies. The spectra show ten objects to have Seyfert-like emission lines; thirty-three to have sharp emission lines; twenty to have both absorption lines and sharp emission lines; sixty to have absorption lines; and three to have continuous spectra. The remaining objects were galactic stars and one planetary nebula. The UBV colors of the galaxies are correlated with the spectra. Individual descriptions of the 126 galaxies, including their redshifts and absolute magnitudes, are given. The mean redshift is 9994 km , and the mean absolute magnitude is Mp = -20.2. The galaxies are a very heterogeneous collection with a range in absolute magnitude -14.9> Mp> -23.2. The galaxies with sharp emission lines are probably excited by hot stars. Many new interesting objects are described, including field galaxies with high intrinsic luminosities, four new Seyfert galaxies, a new "ring" galaxy, and several dwarf galaxies with very strong, sharp emission lines. We show that the galaxies for which 200-inch photographs were obtained are indeed compact in the sense of having an abnormally high luminosity per square parsec.