An observational study of galaxy clustering

An observational study of the clustering of faint galaxies in the magnitude range 19.5< msub(j) <22.0 is undertaken. High quality plate material from the United Kingdom Schmidt Telescope, and automated machine measures from the COSMOS facility at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh constitute the primary data. New information concerning the success of automated image classification techniques is obtained, through the use of very deep plate material from the Anglo-Australian Telescope to ''calibrate'' the wide field plate material used in the investigation. Automated image classification using COSMOS parameters is found to be considerably less successful than previously claimed. Consideration of the methods used to estimate the covariance function from galaxy samples shows that some discrepancies between earlier work on the Zwicky and Lick catalogues, and more recent, deep machine measured samples are due to different estimation procedures, and not the data themselves. (author)