Deep Westerbork 1.4 GHz Imaging of the Bootes Field

We present the results from our deep (16×12 hr) Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) observations of the approximately 7 deg² Bootes Deep Field, centered at 14^h32^m05.75^s, 34°16'47.5" (J2000.0). Our survey consists of 42 discrete pointings, with enough overlap to ensure a uniform sensitivity across the entire field, with a limiting sensitivity of 28 μJy (1 σ_rms). The catalog contains 3172 distinct sources, of which 316 are resolved by the 13^''×27^'' beam. The Bootes field is part of the optical/near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy survey effort conducted at various institutions. The combination of these data sets and the deep nature of the radio observations will allow unique studies of a large range of topics including the redshift evolution of the luminosity function of radio sources, the K-z relation, the clustering environment of radio galaxies, the radio/far-infrared correlation for distant starbursts, and the nature of obscured radio-loud active galactic nuclei.