NEW VELOCITY DISPERSIONS AND PHOTOMETRY FOR E AND SO GALAXIES IN THE GREAT ATTRACTOR

New spectroscopy and photometry have been obtained for 136 elliptical and SO galaxies in the direction of the large-scale streaming flow attributed to the great attractor. Measurements of central velocity dispersion (sigma), total B magnitudes (B-tau), the photometric parameter D(n), and the absorption-line index Mg2 are presented. Both internal and external comparisons indicate that measurements of log sigma are accurate to 0.05 dex, B(tau) to 0.15 mag, D(n) to 0.015 dex, and Mg2 to 0.017 mag. These data have been used in a previous paper by Dressler and Faber to estimate distances for these galaxies via the D(n)-sigma relation. It is shown in this paper that the D(n)-Mg2 relation also predicts the same trends of peculiar velocity with distance, but with less accuracy. The relative accuracy of other distance indicators for elliptical galaxies is also discussed.