  The APM Bright Galaxy Catalogue lists positions, magnitudes, shapes and
morphological types for 14,681 galaxies brighter than $b_J$ magnitude 16.44
over a 4,180 square degree area of the southern sky. Galaxy and stellar images
have been located from glass copy plates of the United Kingdom Schmidt
Telescope (UKST) IIIaJ sky survey using the Automated Photographic Measuring
(APM) facility in Cambridge, England. The majority of stellar images are
rejected by the regularity of their image surface brightness profiles.
Remaining images are inspected by eye on film copies of the survey material and
classed as stellar, multiple stellar, galaxy, merger or noise. Galaxies are
further classified as elliptical, lenticular, spiral, irregular or uncertain.
The 180 survey fields are put onto a uniform photometric system by comparing
the magnitudes of galaxies in the overlap regions between neighbouring plates.
The magnitude zero-point, photometric uniformity and photographic saturation
are checked with CCD photometry. Finally, the completeness and reliability of
the catalogue is assessed using various internal tests and by comparing with
several independently constructed galaxy catalogues.
