Stellar populations in the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4565. I - Surface brightness and color distributions

Results are presented for photographic and photoelectric photometry of the edge-on Sb galaxy NGC 4565. Major-axis, minor-axis, and perpendicular surface brightness profiles are determined, along with color gradients parallel and perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy. It is found that the galaxy's light can be deconvolved naturally into five components: (1) a starlike nucleus located at the center of the bulge and the edge of the dust lane; (2) a thin disk containing the gas and dust, the young OB stars, and the spiral arms; (3) a thick disk that may be a locally isothermal sheet of old Population I metal-rich stars; (4) a bulge that merges smoothly into the thick disk at a radial distance of about 2.9 kpc; and (5) a corona whose light dominates the perpendicular profiles from about 2.9 to at least 8.2 kpc above the galactic plane.