Faint features of interacting galaxies revealed by the digital coaddition of 13 Tech-Pan films of the Virgo Cluster

We have digitally coadded APM scans of 13 Kodak TechPan films of the SE reg ion of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. The approximate to 6.2 degrees x 6.2 degrees field of the R-band films combined with the resolution of approxima te to 2 arcsec pixel(-1) results in data-file sizes of about 222 MBytes. Th e 13 scanned films have been aligned, coadded, corrected for vignetting eff ects and cleaned of stellar features. To illustrate the astrophysical uses of this technique, we present high-contrast images of a sample of interacti ng galaxies in the field. Several very faint features (but very clearly see n in the coadded array) - such as the interaction between IC 3481, IC 3481A and IC 3483, and NGC 4410A and B and IC 790 - have been presented with cla rity for the first time.