A digital photometric survey of the magellanic clouds: First results from one million stars.

We present the first results from, and a complete description of, our ongoing UBVI digital photometric survey of the Magellanic Clouds. In particular, we discuss the photometric quality and automated reduction of a CCD survey (magnitude limits, completeness, and astrometric accuracy) that covers the central 8(deg) x 8(deg) of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and 4(deg) x 4(deg) of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We discuss photometry of over 1 million stars from the initial survey observations (an area northwest of the LMC bar covering ~ 2(deg) x 1.5(deg) ) and present a deep stellar cluster catalog that contains about 45% more clusters than previously identified within this region. Of the 68 clusters found, only 12 are also identified as concentrations of ``old'', red clump stars. Furthermore, only three clusters are identified solely on the basis of a concentration of red clump stars, rather than as a concentration of luminous (V < 21) main sequence stars. Extrapolating from the current data, we expect to obtain B and V photometry for 25 million stars, and U and I photometry for 10 and 20 million stars, respectively, over the entire survey area.