Population studies in groups and clusters of galaxies. II - A catalog of galaxies in the central 3.5 deg of the Fornax Cluster

This paper presents a catalog of 2678 galaxies within an area of ~40ᵈeg^ sq. centered on the Fornax Cluster at α~3ʰ^ 35ᵐ^ and δ~ -35. 7ᵈeg^. The data have been obtained from visual inspection of 26 deep large-scale (10. 9" mm^-1^) plates taken with the du Pont 2. 5 m reflector at the Las Campanas Observatory, and from digital photometry of an ESO/SRC blue survey plate covering roughly the same area of the sky. The catalog is essentially diameter limited, with a limiting diameter of 17" at an isophote of BT_ ~26. 5. Within this survey region, the catalog includes 340 likely cluster members and 2338 likely background galaxies. For cluster members, this listing should be complete to BT_ ~18 (corresponding to MB_ T_ ~ 13. 0, assuming a distance modulus of m - M=31. 9) and contains likely members down to BT_ ~20. Cluster membership is for the most part based on galaxy morphology. By virtue of their low surface brightness, dwarf galaxies in the cluster can be distinguished with a high degree of certainty from background galaxies. Radial velocities are included for 89 galaxies in the survey, providing a reliable indicator of membership in these cases. As additional support for our rejection of background galaxies, we model the spatial distribution of various types of galaxies as the sum of a King model cluster component superimposed on a uniform background. Using maximum-likelihood fits to these spatial distributions, we find a core radius of 0. 7ᵈeg^ for a King model fit to the cluster, and show that there are few, if any, cluster members contained in the sample of background galaxies.