Statistical analysis of catalogs of extragalactic objects. III. The Shane--Wirtanen and Zwicky catalogs

We present a statistical investigation of clustering in the galaxy catalogs compiled by Zwicky et a!. and by Shane and Wirtanen. We estimate the covariance and power spectrum of the angular distributions. We find that the region of space surveyed in the Zwicky Catalog acts like a "fair sample of the Universe," in the sense that the statistical nature of the clustering revealed by this catalog is found mirrored at smaller angnlar scales in the deeper survey of Shane and Wirtanen. We find that the spatial correlation of galaxies as mapped in these surveys is quite small for separations greater than about 20h-1 Mpc (h = Hubble's constant in units of 100 km Mpc-'). Although this estimate is uncertain because of the uncertainty in the galaxy luminosity function, the correlation length for galaxies seems to fall clearly below the corresponding quantity for the distribution of the rich clusters of galaxies. Subject headings: galaxies, clusters of