NEW OBSERVATIONS AND A PHOTOGRAPHIC ATLAS OF POLAR-RING GALAXIES

A photographic atlas of polar-ring galaxies and related objects is presented. The atlas includes kinematically confirmed polar-ring galaxies (category A), good candidates based on their morphological appearance (category B), possible candidates (category C), and possibly related objects (category D). New photometric and kinematic observations are reported for several galaxies in the catalog, including observations that show that UGC 7576 and UGC 9796 ( = II ZW 73) are S0 galaxies with polar rings. Roughly 0.5% of all nearby S0 galaxies appear to have polar rings. When corrected for various selection effects (e.g., nonoptimal viewing orientation, possible dimming or limited lifetime of the ring) the percentage increases to about 5% of S0 galaxies which have, or have had a polar ring.