LARGE-SCALE INHOMOGENEITIES AND GALAXY NUMBER COUNTS

Number magnitude counts of faint galaxies suggest variations of several tens of percent in counts to the same depth in different direction. If we assume that the small scale correlations are the same everywhere, a lower limit on the scale of the inhomogeneities responsible for the large scale variations can be estimated from a comparison of the corresponding angular correlation functions. This lower limit is about 75 h-1 Mpc for data recently presented by Picard, and even if we allow generously for possible systematic uncertainties in the data the scale still remains at least 45 h-1 Mpc.