Search for Faint Galaxies Towards Nearby Voids

Recent redshift surveys of the Nilson-, Zwicky-, and ESO-Uppsala galaxy catalogues revealed that the bright galaxies in these catalogues follow a spatial distribution where large empty regions are surrounded by sheet-like structures of galaxies and clusters (e.g. Giovanelli & Haynes 1991). From an observer's point of view, one may simply ask if the voids in the above-mentioned galaxy maps are real or if they reflect special observational selection effects, e.g. in surface brightness, integral magnitude or diameter. These catalogues contain many bright galaxies ( M B ∼ M∗ B ), but only very few faint objects ( M B ≥ M∗ B + 3 m ). Older work on the distribution of intrinsically faint galaxies, like irregular dwarfs, claimed that the dwarfs follow the distribution which is outlined by the giant galaxies.