[ADC99] 579 , the SIMBAD biblio

We present a deep BVrI multicolor catalog of galaxies in a 5.62arcmin² field 80arcsec south of the high redshift (z=4.7) quasar BR 1202-0725, derived from observations with the direct CCD camera SUSI at the ESO NTT. The formal 5σ magnitude limits (in 2xFWHM apertures) are 26.9, 26.5, 25.9 and 25.3 in B, V, r and I respectively. Counts, colors for the star and galaxy samples are discussed and a comparison with a deep HST image in the I band is presented. The percentage of merged or blended galaxies in the SUSI data to this magnitude limit is estimated to be not higher than 1%. At the same galactic latitude of the HDF but pointing toward the galactic center, the star density in this field is found to be ∼3 times higher, with ∼20% of the objects with V-I>3.0. Reliable colors have been measured for galaxies selected down to r=26. The choice of the optical filters has been optimized to define a robust multicolor selection of galaxies at 3.8≤z≤4.4. Within this interval the surface density of galaxy candidates with r<26 in this field is 2.7±0.4arcmin^–2 corresponding to a comoving density of Star Formation Rate at 3.8≤z≤4.4 of 10^–2.00-10^–1.82h³M_☉/yr/Mpc³.