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Description
We present deep near-infrared (NIR) Js-, H-, and Ks-band ISAAC imaging of the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) field of the Hubble Deep Field South (HDF-S). The 2.5'x2.5' high Galactic latitude field was observed with the Very Large Telescope under the best seeing conditions, with integration times amounting to 33.6hr in Js, 32.3hr in H, and 35.6hr in Ks. We reach total AB magnitudes for point sources of 26.8, 26.2, and 26.2, respectively (3sigma), which make it the deepest ground-based NIR observation to date and the deepest Ks-band data in any field. The effective seeing of the co-added images is ~0.45" in Js, ~0.48" in H, and ~0.46" in Ks. Using published WFPC2 optical data, we constructed a Ks-limited multicolor catalog containing 833 sources down to K^tot^_s,AB_<~26, of which 624 have seven-band optical-to-NIR photometry. These data allow us to select normal galaxies from their rest-frame optical properties to high redshift (z<~4). The observations, data reduction, and properties of the final images are discussed, and we address the detection and photometry procedures that were used in making the catalog. In addition, we present deep number counts, color distributions, and photometric redshifts of the HDF-S galaxies.
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