A Photometric and Spectroscopic Study of Dwarf and Giant Galaxies in the Coma Cluster. I. Wide-Area Photometric Survey: Observation and Data Analysis^*

We carried out a deep photometric and spectroscopic survey of wide areas in the Coma cluster, aiming to investigate the properties of galaxy population in different environments within the cluster. We present the results in a series of papers. This paper, the first of the series, describes the imaging observations and photometric data reduction. Imaging data were taken with the wide-field mosaic CCD camera, which was attached to the prime focus of the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope at La Palma, Canary Islands. Our observations covered a large field of view (2.22 deg²) from the cluster center to the outskirts, and our photometry is complete to a limiting magnitude of R ≃ 23 mag. The limit of secure star-galaxy discrimination is, however, brighter at R = 20 mag. We identified 3147 galaxies down to this limit in the part (1.32 deg²) of the survey area, together with 662 galaxies identified in the control field SA 57. We measured surface photometric parameters and compiled a photometric catalog for these galaxies. Statistical properties of the catalog are shown in this paper, while the catalog itself is given in a forthcoming paper in the series.