Photometry of the Central Regions in a Complete Sample of High Bautz-Morgan-Type Abell Clusters. I. Observations and Data Calibration

We present CCD photometry of 209 southern Abell clusters selected according to Bautz-Morgan type I, I-II, and II. We have performed total photometry in the Gunn r bandpass, classified stars and galaxies, and obtained structural parameters for the images. To estimate the photometric and structural errors on the CCD images and the completeness limits of our photometry, we performed realistic simulations of stars and galaxies and ran our classification algorithms. Here, we present central galaxy counts and metric photometry of the brightest cluster members, for which we give accurate positions, and compare this photometry with values in the literature. A linear magnitude-redshift relation has been derived from the tenth-ranked galaxy in each cluster. Photometric redshifts have been estimated for 57 clusters. We provide either spectroscopic or photometric redshifts for all the clusters in our sample. Further analysis of these data will be presented in further publications.