ESO Imaging Survey. AXAF Field: Deep Optical-Infrared Observations, Data Reduction and Photometry

This paper presents ground-based data obtained from deep optical and infrared observations carried out at the ESO 3.5 New Technology Telescope (NTT) of a field selected for its low HI content for deep observations with AXAF. These data were taken as part of the ESO Imaging Survey (EIS) program, a public survey conducted in preparation for the first year of operation of the VLT. Deep CCD images are available for five optical passbands, reaching 2 sigma limiting magnitudes of U_AB~27.0, B_AB~27, V_AB~26.5, R_AB~26.5 and I_AB~26. An area of ~56 square arcmin is covered by UBVR observations, and ~30 square arcmin also in I. The infrared observations cover a total area of ~83 square arcmin, reaching J_AB~24.5 and K_AB~23.5. This paper describes the observations and data reduction. It also presents images of the surveyed region and lists the optical and infrared photometric parameters of the objects detected on the co-added images of each passband, as well as multicolor optical and infrared catalogs. These catalogs together with the astrometrically and photometrically calibrated co-added images are public and can be retrieved from the URL http://www.eso.org/eis/ . This data set completes the ESO Imaging Survey program sixteen months after it began in July 1997.