The mid-infrared Tully-Fisher relation: Spitzer Surface Photometry
  The availability of photometric imaging of several thousand galaxies with the
Spitzer Space Telescope enables a mid-infrared calibration of the correlation
between luminosity and rotation in spiral galaxies. The most important
advantage of the new calibration in the 3.6 micron band, IRAC ch.1, is
photometric consistency across the entire sky. Additional advantages are
minimal obscuration, observations of flux dominated by old stars, and
sensitivity to low surface brightness levels due to favorable backgrounds.
Through Spitzer cycle 7 roughly 3000 galaxies had been observed and images of
these are available at the Spitzer archive. In cycle 8 a program called Cosmic
Flows with Spitzer has been initiated that will increase by 1274 the available
sample of spiral galaxies with inclinations greater than 45 degrees from
face-on suitable for distance measurements. This paper describes procedures
based on the photometry package Archangel that are being employed to analyze
both the archival and the new data in a uniform way. We give results for 235
galaxies, our calibrator sample for the Tully-Fisher relation. Galaxy
magnitudes are determined with uncertainties held below 0.05 mag for normal
spiral systems. A subsequent paper will describe the calibration of the [3.6]
luminosity-rotation relation.
