The ESO Slice Project (ESP) galaxy redshift survey. III. The sample

The ESO Slice Project (ESP) is a galaxy redshift survey extending over about 23 square degrees, in a region near the South Galactic Pole. The survey is ~ 85% complete to the limiting magnitude b_J=19.4 and consists of 3342 galaxies with redshift determination. The ESP survey is intermediate between shallow, wide angle samples and very deep, one-dimensional pencil beams; the spanned volume is ~ 5 \ 10(4) \htre at the sensitivity peak (z ~ 0.1). In this paper we present the description of the observations and of the data reduction, the ESP redshift catalogue and the analysis of the quality of the velocity determinations. based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile. Table 3 is only available (and Table 2 is also available) in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html