The luminosity function of nearby galaxy clusters. I. A catalog of galaxies within the central 0.83 square degrees of the Centaurus Cluster

We present a catalog of all galaxies with V <= 22.0 and R-iso > 3 '' within a 0.83 deg(2) region centered on the Centaurus Cluster (Abell 3526) at alpha = 12h(4)8(m), delta = - 41 degrees 18'. V-band total magnitudes along with other photometric parameters were obtained from the detection programs FOCAS and SExtractor and also from fitting curve-of-growth Sersic functions to the galaxy profiles. Central surface brightnesses, half-light radii, ellipticity, and position angles are presented, along with ( B - V) aperture colors where B-band data were obtained. This work is part of a larger program to study the cluster-to-cluster variation in the faint end of the LF based on the study of eight clusters, including Centaurus. We discuss our data reduction methods in this paper. More detailed analyses and science results will be presented in subsequent papers.