L. Benacchio

Ellipticity and Twisting Of The Isophotes Of Some Bright Galaxies In Virgo

Ellipticity and twisting of the isophotes of four lenticular and seven elliptical galaxies in the Virgo cluster are presented as a sample of a more complete photometric investigation. This work has been motivated by the increasing importance of this kind of information for the understanding of the spatial structure of E galaxies. The calibrated plate material from the Loiano 1.52 meter and Tautenburg Schmidt telescopes has been digitized with a PDS microdensitometer and analysed by means of the Interactive Numerical Mapping Package (IMP). Ellipticity and orientation profiles are presented in a graphical form together with a preliminary discussion. A correlation has been found between ellipticity and twisting in barred lenticulars which might help in the understanding of some E galaxies such as NGC 4406 and NGC 4374. Twisting has been detected in all of the seven ellipticals of the sample.