THE ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL    VOLUME 109, NUMBER 2, PAGE 543        FEBRUARY 1995

               TOTAL AND EFFECTIVE COLORS OF 501 GALAXIES IN THE
                        COUSINS VRI PHOTOMETRIC SYSTEM

                                    R. BUTA

             University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0324
                    Electronic mail: buta@sarah.astr.ua.edu

                               KESHA L. WILLIAMS

           Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi 39217-0460


                                   ABSTRACT

    Total color indices (V-R)_T, (V-I)_T and effective color indices
    (V-R)_e, (V-I)_e in the Cousins VRI photometric system are presented
    for 501 mostly normal galaxies. The colors are computed using a
    procedure outlined in the Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies
    (RC3) whereby standard color curves approximated by Laplace-Gauss
    integrals are fitted to observed photoelectric multiaperture
    photometry.  11 sources of such photometry were used for our analysis,
    each source being assigned an appropriate weight according to a
    rigorous analysis of residuals of the data from the best-fitting
    standard color curves.  Together with the integrated B-V and U-B colors
    provided in RC3, our analysis widens the range of wavelength of
    homogeneously defined colors of normal galaxies of all Hubble types.
    We present color-color and color-type relations that can be modeled to
    understand the star formation history of galaxies.