4 Summary

This paper completes the presentation of one of the primary products of EIS, namely a large sample of candidate clusters of galaxies spanning a broad range of redshifts, extending to $z \sim 1$. The candidates were selected in four different patches of the sky covering a large range in right ascension, thereby providing potential VLT targets which are observable over almost the entire year. Taking all patches together the total sample consists of 302 candidates with about 150 candidates with $z ~\rlap{$\gt$}{\lower 1.0ex\hbox{$\sim$}}\; 0.5$. This is by far the largest such a sample currently available, and should serve as a good starting point for several programs at the VLT. Note that, as emphasized in previous papers of this series, the selection criteria adopted has been in general conservative, and the primary concern has been the reliability of the candidates rather than completeness of the sample. The catalogs of cluster candidates are available at "http://www.eso.org/eis", from where image cutouts from the EIS coadded images can also be retrieved for evaluation and preparation of follow-up observations.

The current cluster candidate lists have been prepared based on galaxy catalogs extracted from the single 150 s exposures. Since these images are being coadded in the near future it will be possible to extract galaxy catalogs which should reach about 0.5 mag deeper. As soon as these catalogs become available they will also be used to search for clusters and it might be possible to extend somewhat the redshift range of the detected cluster candidates and/or confirm previous detections. However, the available sample is sufficiently large and deep to meet most of the scientific needs in the first year of operation of the VLT.

Acknowledgements

The data presented here were taken at the New Technology Telescope at the La Silla Observatory under the program IDs 59.A-9005(A) and 60.A-9005(A). We thank all the people directly or indirectly involved in the ESO Imaging Survey effort. In particular, all the members of the EIS Working Group for the innumerable suggestions and constructive criticisms. We also thank the ESO Archive Group and ST-ECF for their support. Our special thanks to A. Renzini, VLT Programme Scientist, for his scientific input, support and dedication in making this project a success. Finally, we would like to thank ESO's Director General Riccardo Giacconi for making this effort possible.