The I-band Tully-Fisher relation for Sc galaxies:: Optical imaging data

Properties derived from the analysis of photometric I-band imaging observations are presented for 1727 inclined spiral galaxies, mostly of types Sbc and Sc. The reduction, parameter extraction, and error estimation procedures are discussed in detail. The asymptotic behavior of the magnitude curve of growth and the radial variation in ellipticity and position angle are used in combination with the linearity of the surface brightness falloff to fit the disk portion of the profile. Total I-band magnitudes are calculated by extrapolating the detected surface brightness profile to a radius of eight disk scale lengths. Errors in the magnitudes, typically similar to 0.04 mag, are dominated by uncertainties in the sky subtraction and disk-fitting procedures. Comparison is made with the similar imaging database of Mathewson, Ford, & Buchhorn, both as presented originally by those authors and after reanalyzing their digital reduction files using identical disk-fitting procedures. Direct comparison is made of profile details for 292 galaxies observed in common. Although some differences occur, good agreement is found, proving that the two data sets can be used in combination with only minor accommodation of those differences. The compilation of optical properties presented here is optimized for use in applications of the Tully-Fisher relation as a secondary distance indicator in studies of the local peculiar velocity field.