Optical (VRI) Photometry in the Field of the Galaxy Cluster AC 118 at z=0.31

Abstract

We present new photometric V-, R- and I-band data for the rich galaxy cluster AC 118 at z=0.31. The new photometry covers an area of 8.6x8.6 arcmin$^2$, corresponding to 2.9$\times$2.9 Mpc$^2$ (H$_0=50$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, q$_0=0.5$ and $\Lambda = 0$). The data have been collected for a project aimed at studying galaxy evolution through the color-magnitude relation and the fundamental plane. We provide a catalogue including all the sources (N = 1206) detected in the cluster field. The galaxy sample is complete to V=22.8 mag (N_gal=574), R=22.3 mag (N_gal=649) and I=20.8 mag (N_gal=419). We give aperture magnitudes within a fixed aperture of 4.4 arcsec and Kron magnitudes. We also give photometric redshifts for 459 sources for which additional U- and K-band photometry is available. We derive and discuss the V- and R-band luminosity functions. The catalogue, which is distributed in electronic form, is intended as a tool for studies in galaxy evolution.