ESO Imaging Survey

VII. Distant cluster candidates over 12 square degrees

¹ European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, D-85748 Garching b. München, Germany
² Astronomisk Observatorium, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
³ Leiden Observatory, P.O. Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
⁴ Max-Planck Institut für Astrophysik, Postfach 1523, D-85748 Garching b. München, Germany
⁵ Space Telescope – European Coordinating Facility, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, D–85748 Garching b. München, Germany
⁶ Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via G.B. Tiepolo 11, I-31144 Trieste, Italy
⁷ Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, via Moiariello 15, I-80131 Napoli, Italy

Send offprint request to: M. Scodeggio

Received: 5 August 1998
Accepted: 21 December 1998

Abstract

In this paper the list of candidate clusters identified from the I-band images of the ESO Imaging Survey (EIS) is completed using the data obtained over a total area of about 12 square degrees (EIS Patches C and D). 248 new cluster candidates are presented. Together with the data reported earlier the total I-band coverage of EIS is 17 square degrees, which has yielded a sample of 302 cluster candidates with estimated redshift in the range and a median redshift of . This is the largest optically-selected sample currently available in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also well distributed in the sky thus providing targets for a variety of VLT programs nearly year round.