A Method of Obtaining the Pitch Angle of Spiral Arms and the Inclination of Galactic Discs

Abstract

We investigate the mathematical form, the symmetry of spiral structure and the projected images of galactic discs. The measured pitch angles of spiral arms and inclination angles of galactic discs for 60 spiral galaxies are presented. The global spiral structure is emphasized in the study. It is found that, except for small-scale distortions, the spiral arms of those galaxies that were classified as AC 12 in the arm classification system of Elmegreen & Elmegreen, can be represented by the logarithmic spiral form.