The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. I. Introduction to the Survey and Data Reduction Procedures

Abstract

The Fornax Cluster is a conspicuous cluster of galaxies in the southern hemisphere and the second largest collection of early-type galaxies within <~ 20 Mpc after the Virgo Cluster. In this paper,we present a brief introduction to the ACS Fornax Cluster Survey - a program to image, in the F475W (g_475) and F850LP (z_850) bandpasses, 43 early-type galaxies in Fornax using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope. Combined with a companion survey of Virgo, the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey, this represents the most comprehensive imaging survey to date of early-type galaxies in cluster environments in terms of depth, spatial resolution, sample size and homogeneity. We describe the selection of the program galaxies, their basic properties, and the main science objectives of the survey which include the measurement of luminosities, colors and structural parameters for globular clusters associated with these galaxies, an analysis of their isophotal properties and surface brightness profiles, and an accurate calibration of the surface brightness fluctuation distance indicator. Finally, we discuss the data reduction procedures adopted for the survey.

13 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJS. Also available at http://www.eso.org/~ajordan/ACSFCS/Publications.html

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• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VIII. The Nuclei of Early-Type Galaxies
• From Supermassive Black Holes to Dwarf Elliptical Nuclei: a Mass Continuum
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. XIV. Analysis of Color-Magnitude Relations in Globular Cluster Systems
• First results from SAPAC: towards a 3D-picture of the Fornax cluster core

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