A Systematic Search for Galaxies behind the Milky Way at Sagittarius

Abstract

This is the second paper concerning our systematic search for galaxies behind the Milky Way at the galactic center region. The searched area was about 260 square degrees between l = ≃ −7° and 16° and b ≃ −19° and −1°, and a total of 7154 galaxies and galaxy candidates with sizes of 0′.1 or greater were identified. Among these detected objects, 52 are given in the ESO galaxy catalog and another 55 are associated with IRAS point sources containing 13 IRAS galaxies with known redshifts. We made a catalog of the detected objects, in which the position in (α, δ) and (l, b), the size, and the features of the image, and the multiplicity are given for each object. The surface number densities of the detected objects mainly depend on the galactic latitude as well as on the distribution of nearby dark clouds. Although the sky distribution and size distribution of the detected objects show the presence of a cluster candidate of galaxies at a distance further than 100 Mpc, there is no evidence of any nearby clusters.