Radio-optical orientation of E/S0 galaxies: APM versus FIRST

Abstract

We searched for extended radio sources in isolated E/S0 galaxies comparing the FIRST and APM catalogues for a single POSS plate. The 35 most promising candidates were visually inspected on the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) and on FIRST images: we find several spirals and interacting galaxies and a few E/S0s with very weak, marginally extended radio cores. The only double-lobed (previously known) radio source is a dumbbell. For the rest of the objects, all hosting small and weak radio sources, the DSS is inadequate to determine morphological types. Thus a significant increase in sample size will be a major effort.