RADIO OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMA CLUSTER OF GALAXIES AND ITS IMMEDIATE VICINITY .1. RADIO DATA AND OPTICAL IDENTIFICATIONS

Continuum radio surveys of a region containing the Coma cluster of galaxies have been made at eight different frequencies with the DRAO and VLA synthesis telescopes. These surveys detected 482 sources above 30 mJy at 408 MHz within a circular region of diameter about 9.7-degrees and 298 sources in the frequency range 1.3 - 1.7 GHz within a circular region of diameter 3.1-degrees. The completeness level of the surveys is 10 mJy at 1.4 GHz for sources located within a 65' radius from the phase centre. 17 new rotation measures were obtained for sources in the field of the Coma cluster. Of 107 sources detected at 1380 MHz with the VLA within 30' radius of its phase centre, 33 sources (31%) are optically identified with galaxies. The number of yet unidentified cluster sources expected from the survey is estimated to be about 20. With the redshift data currently available, only 29 Coma cluster radio galaxies have been identified.