Dust in elliptical galaxies

Abstract

We describe CCD observations and a numerical procedure which combine to be particularly effective in locating dust-lanes in elliptical galaxies. Application to 31 bright ellipticals shows that eight possess dust features while several others may do so. The technique also finds galaxies in the sample with compact and diffuse red nuclei, and of the present sample only 5/31 or ~ 15 percent show no colour gradients. Compact red nuclei are common in flat-spectrum radio ellipticals.