Deep Westerbork 1.4 GH[CLC]z[/CLC] Imaging of the Bootes Field

We present the results from our deep (16 × 12 hr) Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) observations of the approximately 7 deg 2 Bootes Deep Field, centered at 14 h 32 m 05 75, 34°16'47 5 (J2000.0). Our survey consists of 42 discrete pointings, with enough overlap to ensure a uniform sensitivity across the entire field, with a limiting sensitivity of 28 μJy (1 σ rms ). The catalog contains 3172 distinct sources, of which 316 are resolved by the 13'' × 27'' beam. The Bootes field is part of the optical/near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy survey effort conducted at various institutions. The combination of these data sets and the deep nature of the radio observations will allow unique studies of a large range of topics including the redshift evolution of the luminosity function of radio sources, the K - z relation, the clustering environment of radio galaxies, the radio/far-infrared correlation for distant starbursts, and the nature of obscured radio-loud active galactic nuclei.