THE ESO SLICE PROJECT (ESP) GALAXY REDSHIFT SURVEY - III - THE SAMPLE

The ESO Slice Project (ESP) is a galaxy redshift survey extending over about 23 square degrees, in a region near the South Galactic Pole. Th e survey is similar to 85% complete to the limiting magnitude b(J) = 1 9.4 and consists of 3342 galaxies with redshift determination. The ESP survey is intermediate between shallow, wide angle samples and very d eep, one-dimensional pencil beams; the spanned volume is similar to 5 10(4) h(-3) Mpc(3) at the sensitivity peak (z similar to 0.1). In this paper we present the description of the observations and of the data reduction, the ESP redshift catalogue and the analysis of the quality of the velocity determinations.