We present the HIPASS Bright Galaxy Catalog (BGC), which contains the 1000 H i brightest galaxies in the southern sky as obtained from the H i Parkes All-Sky Survey (HIPASS). The selection of the brightest sources is based on their H i peak flux density (S peak k116 mJy) as measured from the spatially integrated HIPASS spectrum. The derived H i masses range from $10 7 to 4 ; 10 10 M . While the BGC (z < 0:03) is complete in S peak , only a subset of $500 sources can be considered complete in integrated H i flux density (F H i k 25 Jy km s À1 ). The HIPASS BGC contains a total of 158 new redshifts. These belong to 91 new sources for which no optical or infrared counterparts have previously been cataloged, an additional 51 galaxies for which no redshifts were previously known, and 16 galaxies for which the cataloged optical velocities disagree. Of the 91 newly cataloged BGC sources, only four are definite H i clouds: while three are likely Magellanic debris with velocities around 400 km s À1 , one is a tidal cloud associated with the NGC 2442 galaxy group. The remaining 87 new BGC sources, the majority of which lie in the zone of avoidance, appear to be galaxies. We identified optical counterparts to all but one of the 30 new galaxies at Galactic latitudes jbj > 10 . Therefore, the BGC yields no evidence for a population of ''free-floating'' intergalactic H i clouds without associated optical counterparts. HIPASS provides a clear view of the local large-scale structure. The dominant features in the sky distribution of the BGC are the Supergalactic Plane and the Local Void. In addition, one can clearly see the Centaurus Wall, which connects via the Hydra and Antlia Clusters to the Puppis Filament. Some previously hardly noticable galaxy groups stand out quite distinctly in the H i sky distribution. Several new structures, including some not behind the Milky Way, are seen for the first time.

We present a new accurate measurement of the H I mass function of galaxies from the HIPASS Bright Galaxy Catalog, a sample of 1000 galaxies with the highest H I peak flux densities in the southern (δ < 0 • ) hemisphere (Koribalski et al. 2003). This sample spans nearly four orders of magnitude in H I mass (from log(M HI ⁄ M ⊙ ) + 2 log h 75 = 6.8 to 10.6) and is the largest sample of H I selected galaxies to date. We develop a bivariate maximum likelihood technique to measure the space density of galaxies, and show that this is a robust method, insensitive to the effects of large scale structure. The resulting H I mass function can be fitted satisfactorily with a Schechter function with faint-end slope α = −1.30. This slope is found to be dependent on morphological type, with later type galaxies giving steeper slopes. We extensively test various effects that potentially bias the determination of the H I mass function, including peculiar motions of galaxies, large scale structure, selection bias, and inclination effects, and quantify these biases. The large sample of galaxies enables an accurate measurement of the cosmological mass density of neutral gas: Ω HI = (3.8 ± 0.6) × 10 −4 h −1 75 . Low surface brightness galaxies contribute only ∼ 15% to this value, consistent with previous findings.

We present large-area maps of the CO J=3-2 emission obtained at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope for four spiral galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. We combine these data with published CO J=1-0, 24 µm, and Hα images to measure the CO line ratios, molecular gas masses, and instantaneous gas depletion times. For three galaxies in our sample (NGC 4254, NGC4321, and NGC 4569), we obtain molecular gas masses of 7 × 10 8 − 3 × 10 9 M ⊙ and disk-averaged instantaneous gas depletion times of 1.1-1.7 Gyr. We argue that the CO J=3-2 line is a better tracer of the dense star forming molecular gas than the CO J=1-0 line, as it shows a better correlation with the star formation rate surface density both within and between galaxies. NGC 4254 appears to have a larger star formation efficiency(smaller gas depletion time), perhaps because it is on its first passage through the Virgo Cluster. NGC 4569 shows a large-scale gradient in the gas properties traced by the CO J=3-2/J=1-0 line ratio, which suggests that its interaction with the intracluster medium is affecting the dense star-forming portion of the interstellar medium directly. The fourth galaxy in our sample, NGC 4579, has weak CO J=3-2 emission despite having bright 24 µm emission; however, much of the central luminosity in this galaxy may be due to the presence of a central AGN.

We present deep BVRI band images and H i line observations of the nearby, low surface brightness galaxy ESO215-G?009 which were obtained with the ANU 2.3-m Telescope and the Australia Telescope Compact Array, respectively. ESO215-G?009 was selected from the HIPASS Bright Galaxy Catalog because it has the second highest H i mass-to-light ratio of the galaxies with measured B band apparent magnitudes. We find that it is an isolated dwarf irregular galaxy with an old stellar population. We place an upper limit on the current star formation rate of ∼ 2.5 × 10 −3 M ⊙ yr −1 . The extended H i disk shows regular rotation (v rot = 51 ± 8 km s −1 ), and at a column density of ∼ 5.0 × 10 19 atoms cm −2 can be traced out to over six times the Holmberg radius of the stellar component (radius at µ B = 26.6 mag arcsec −2 ). After foreground star subtraction, we measure a B band apparent magnitude of 16.13 ± 0.07 mag within a radius of 80 ′′ . The H i flux density is 122 ± 4 Jy km s −1 within a radius of 370 ′′ . Given a Galactic extinction of A B = 0.95 ± 0.15 mag, we derive an H i mass-to-light ratio of 22 ± 4 M ⊙ /L ⊙,B for ESO215-G?009. To our knowledge this is the highest M HI /L B ratio for a galaxy to be confirmed by accurate measurement to date.