We have conducted a V-band CCD surface photometry of 68 disk galaxies to analyze the bulge morphology of nearby spirals. We classify bulges into four types according to their ellipticities and the misalignments between the major axis of the bulge and those of the disk and the bar: spherical, oblate, pseudo triaxial, and triaxial. We found that one third of the bulges are triaxial and they are preponderant in barred galaxies. The presence of the triaxial bulges in a significant fraction of unbarred galaxies as well as in barred galaxies might support the secular evolution hypothesis which postulates that the bar driven mass inflow leads to the formation of triaxial bulges and the destruction of bars when sufficient mass is accumulated in the central regions.

We have conducted a V, I, J, and H surface photometry of a barred galaxy NGC 4314 to analyze the morphology and luminosity distribution of the galaxy. By applying a semi two-dimensional profile decomposition method, we derived the luminosity fractions and the scale lengths of the three distinct components, bulge, disk, and bar: Lb ≈ 0.35, Ld ≈ 0.35, Lbar ≈ 0.30, re ≈ 22", ro ≈ 50", and a ≈ 60". The bulge of NGC 4314 seems to be triaxial due to the isophotal twists but its luminosity distribution is well approximated by the r1/4-law.

We performed VRI CCD surface photometry of three spiral galaxies of HCG10 in order to understand the effect of interactions in the compact group. The morphology of the largest member NGC 536 seems to be normal but its bulge is thought to be of an oblate spheroid. The central surface brightness of the disk of NGC 536 is much fainter than that of disks of nearby spiral galaxies. The morphologies of NGC 531 and NGG 542 appear to be affected by interactions which lead to a warped disk in NGC 531 and a slightly bent disk in NGC 542. NGC 531 have a boxy bulge and a Freeman Type II disk both of which strongly suggest the presence of a bar in the galaxy. There is a break in the slope of the luminosity profile of NGC 542 which is dominated by the disk component.

We have conducted BV RI CCD surface photometry of three spiral galaxies ESO 598-G009, NGC 1515 and NGC 7456. In order to understand the morphological properties and luminosity distribution characteristics for each galaxy, we derived isophotal map, position angle profile, ellipticity profile, luminosity profile, color profile and color contour map. ESO 598-G009, which has a bright bulge component and a ring, shows a trace of gravitational interaction. NGC 1515 is a spiral galaxy with a bar and dust lane. NGC 7456 shows typical characteristics of a late type spiral galaxy.

We present B VRI CCD surface photometry for the central (6'.35 ×6'.35) regions of the dwarf elliptical galaxies NGC 185 and NGC 205 in the Local Group. Surface brightness profiles of NGC 185 (R<225") and NGC 205 (R<186") show excess components in the central regions. The colors of NGC 185 get bluer inward at R<25", while they remain constant at R ≥ 25". The colors of NGC 205 get bluer inward at 1"<R<50", and remain flat outside. Our photometry, supplemented by the photometry based on the far-ultraviolet and visual images of the HST archive data, shows that there is an inversion of color at the very nucleus region (at about 1"). The implications of the redder color of the core part of the nucleus compared with neighboring regions are discussed. The amount of the excess components in the central regions of these galaxies is estimated to be ≈10 5 L⊙. Distributions of dust clouds in the central regions of the two galaxies are also investigated.

We have developed a new device, Plate-to-CCD Convertor (PCC), to conveniently digitize photographic plates in a relatively short time without losing any plate information (Oh et al. 1995). Using this device we have performed surface photometry of 12 early type galaxies. We determined relative orientations and scales to analyze PCC images. We also determined an ellipticity, position angle of the major axis, and a4 a4 of each galaxy to quantify the distribution of surface brightness. We checked the performance and limitation of this device by comparing the PCC images with those digitized by the ST microdensitometer and those obtained with CCD observations.

We have conducted surface photometry of a spiral galaxy NGC4419, by making use of photographic plates in U, B, V and R-bands taken by 105cm Schmidt Camera at Kiso Observatory. Two dimensional surface brightness distributions as well as luminosity profiles along the major axis are examined in detail to decipher the morphological properties of the galaxy. Analysis of the color distributions of NGC4419 shows that B-V and U-B colors remain constant throughout the galaxy with a weak trend of blue bulge in B-V color. The blue bulge might indicate an active star formation in the nucleus of NGC4419. For a quantitative analysis of the luminosity distribution of NGC4419, the observed luminosity profiles are decomposed into bulge and disk components, assuming the bulge component to follow de Vaucouleurs γ 1 / 4 − l a w while the disk component is assumed to be exponential. The fitting generally fails at the central part and at the shoulder near r = 15' where bulge and disk components overlap. The failure at the central part cannot be attributed wholly by the seeing disk since the core-radius of the central plateau is much larger than the width of point spread function. The failure at shoulder could be due to the luminosities from the spiral arms.

We have conducted BVI photographic surface photometry of four spiral galaxies NGC1087, NGC2715, NGC2844 and NGC3593, by making use of the Kiso Schmidt plates. Detailed examination of the morphological properties of the galaxies using isophotal maps and luminosity profiles showed that all the program galaxies have some peculiarities in their luminosity distributions. NGC1087 and NGC2715 have extremely small nuclei with inner rings which contain several bright HII regions. NGC2844 has a very large bulge whose luminosity dominates over the disk luminosity in all the radii. The I-band luminosity profile of NGC3593 shows shallower gradient than B- and V-band profiles. We were able to successfully decompose the luminosity profile into a bulge following de Vaucouleurs γ 1 / 4 − l a w and an exponential disk only for NGC 3953. Other galaxies have more complicated luminosit profiles.

Using the detailed two-dimensional surface photometry of 39 galaxies, the observed profiles are decomposed into spheroid, disk and bar components simultaneously. From the analyses of decomposition parameters, the correlations among the three components are investigated to find the global property of barred galaxies. And the lens and ring components, and spiral arm patterns are also examined with Hubble type and decomposition parameters.

The global morphology and geometric parameters of 39 barred galaxies are investigated, by using isophote map and isodensity tracings obtained from detailed surface photometry with the Kiso V-band plates. The observed results are as follows: i) There is no strong indication that the ratio of bar length to disk size is correlated with Hubble type, except that the largest bars appear in the SBb galaxies. ii) The mean value of axial ratios of bars is 2.0 ± 0.4 and there is a trend that early type galaxies have smaller axial ratios than late type galaxies. iii) About 15% of early type barred galaxies(Sb0-SBb) have triaxial bulges.