Population Studies in Groups and Clusters of Galaxies. II. A Catalog of Galaxies in the Central 3.5 Degrees of the Fornax Cluster

This paper presents a catalog of 2678 galaxies within an area of ~40^deg^ sq. centered on the Fornax Cluster at α~3^h^ 35^m^ and δ~ -35.7^deg^. The data have been obtained from visual inspection of 26 deep large-scale (10.9" mm^-1^) plates taken with the du Pont 2.5 m reflector at the Las Campanas Observatory, and from digital photometry of an ESO/SRC blue survey plate covering roughly the same area of the sky. The catalog is essentially diameter limited, with a limiting diameter of 17" at an isophote of B_T_ ~26.5. Within this survey region, the catalog includes 340 likely cluster members and 2338 likely background galaxies. For cluster members, this listing should be complete to B_T_ ~18 (corresponding to M_B_ _T_ ~ 13.0, assuming a distance modulus of m - M=31.9) and contains likely members down to B_T_ ~20. Cluster membership is for the most part based on galaxy morphology. By virtue of their low surface brightness, dwarf galaxies in the cluster can be distinguished with a high degree of certainty from background galaxies. Radial velocities are included for 89 galaxies in the survey, providing a reliable indicator of membership in these cases. As additional support for our rejection of background galaxies, we model the spatial distribution of various types of galaxies as the sum of a King model cluster component superimposed on a uniform background. Using maximum-likelihood fits to these spatial distributions, we find a core radius of 0.7^deg^ for a King model fit to the cluster, and show that there are few, if any, cluster members contained in the sample of background galaxies.