ESO imaging survey III. Multicolor data near the South Galactic Pole

This paper presents multicolor data obtained for a 1.7 square degree region near the South Galactic Pole (patch B) as part of the ESO Imaging Survey ( EIS). So far the observations have been conducted in B, V and I, but are ex pected to be complemented by observations in the U-band later in 1998. Obje ct catalogs extracted from single exposure images are 80% complete dawn to B similar to 24, V similar to 23.5 and I similar to 22.5, and once co-added should reach about 0.5 mag deeper. The data are being made public in the f orm of catalogs, pixel maps, target lists and image "postage stamps", which can be retrieved from the Web. Counts of stars and galaxies and the angula r two-point correlation function of galaxies are computed and compared to o ther available data to evaluate the depth and uniformity of the extracted o bject catalogs. In addition, color distributions of stellar objects;are pre sented and compared to model predictions to examine the reliability of the colors. The results suggest that the overall quality of the catalogs extrac ted from the images is good and suitable for the science goals of the surve y.