The REFLEX Galaxy Cluster Survey. VIII: Spectroscopic Observations and Optical Atlas

This web page contains data and results from the optical follow-up of the ROSAT-ESO Flux-Limited X-ray survey (REFLEX), complementing the paper by Guzzo et al. (2009, A&A, 499, 357). In particular, the interested user can find here:

The full version of Table 2 from the paper, containing the catalogue of galaxy redshifts measured in REFLEX clusters, in ASCII, HTML and PDF formats
The whole set of optical/X-ray overlays (Figure 4 in the paper)
Additionally, we also reproduce for convenience the table with the original REFLEX catalogue of 447 clusters, published in Boehringer et al. (2004, A&A, 425, 367)

Abstract: We present the final data from the spectroscopic survey of the ROSAT-ESO Flux-Limited X-ray (REFLEX) catalogue of galaxy clusters. The REFLEX survey covers 4.24 steradians (34% of the entire sky) below a declination Delta =+2.50 and at high galactic latitude (|b| < 20 deg). The full survey includes 447 galaxy clusters with a median redshift of 0.08 and is better than 90% complete to a limiting flux of 3 x 10−12 ergs−1cm−2 (0.1 to 2.4 keV), representing the largest statistically homogeneous sample of clusters to date drawn from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS). Here we describe the details of the spectroscopic observations carried out at the ESO 1.5 m, 2.2 m and 3.6 m telescopes, the data reduction and redshift measurements techniques. The spectra typically cover the wavelength range 3600 − 7500°A at a two-pixel resolution of ~14°A . From calibrations and external checks the redshifts are accurate to a typical rms error of ±100 km s−1.