An Optical Study of a Sample of Spiral Galaxies

We present the first results of an observational project aimed at producing a database of nearby face-on spiral galaxies in the optical. The project is being run at the IAC-80 telescope in Tenerife. This first sample is made of from R and I images of NGC 428, 864, 2146, 2273, 2541, 2967, 4618, 4654, 6217, and 6643. Overall geometrical parameters are obtained via ellipse fitting to the observed surface photometry. Then, structural decomposition into the main morphological components are performed via simultaneous fitting of their analytical brightness profiles to the measured global radial profile. The characteristic structural and photometric parameters of those components are so obtained. It is noticeable that the sample is fully composed by barred galaxies, even when some of them are not classified as such in the RC3 catalog. The bars have first been identified in the radial profiles obtained in the ellipse fitting, and subsequently their brightness distribution taken from the global radial intensity profile.