DGSAT: Dwarf Galaxy Survey with Amateur Telescopes I. Discovery of low surface brightness systems around nearby spiral galaxies

Understand

Context: We introduce the Dwarf Galaxy Survey with Amateur Telescopes (DGSAT) project and report the discovery of eleven low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies in the fields of the nearby galaxies NGC 2683, NGC 3628, NGC 4594 (M104), NGC 4631, NGC 5457 (M101), and NGC 7814.

• Aims: The DGSAT project aims to use the potential of small-sized telescopes to probe LSB features around large galaxies and to increase the sample size of the dwarf satellite galaxies in the Local Volume.
• Methods: Using long exposure images, fields of the target spiral galaxies are explored for extended low surface brightness objects.
• After identifying dwarf galaxy candidates, their observed properties are extracted by fitting models to their light profiles.