Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
A highly complete and reliable IRAS 60-μm galaxy catalogue has been constructed covering 82 per cent of the sky. The excluded areas are the coverage gaps (3 per cent of the sky) and areas flagged as of high source-density (15 per cent of the sky). IRAS colour conditions have been used to exclude galactic sources, including the remaining cirrus sources. All sources flagged as extended, confused or having poor correlation coefficient with a point-source template have been examined with the raw IRAS data and accurate fluxes determined using mapping routines. The completeness, reliability and flux accuracy of the catalogue are discussed. Identifications have been made with existing optical galaxy catalogues and with galaxy redshift surveys in the literature. We estimate that redshifts are available for 79 per cent of the galaxies in the catalogue with V < 5000 km s–1 and the three-dimensional distribution of such galaxies is displayed. The dipole component of the surface-brightness distribution of galaxies in the catalogue is discussed in detail. An algorithm for extending the catalogue into regions flagged as of high source-density at 100 μm (a further 11 per cent of the sky) is discussed.
Rowan-Robinson et al. (Sun,) studied this question.