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Description
We acquired spectra for a random sample of galaxies within a 0.83deg^2^ region centered on the core of the Centaurus Cluster. Radial velocities were obtained for 225 galaxies to limiting magnitudes of V<19.5. Of the galaxies for which velocities were obtained, we find 35% to be member galaxies. New redshifts are obtained for 15 Centaurus Cluster members, many of them dwarf galaxies. Radial velocities for the other members agree well with those from previous studies. Of the 78 member galaxies, magnitudes range over 11.8<V<18.5 (-21.6<M_V_<-14.9 for H0=70km/s/Mpc), with a limiting central surface brightness of {mu}0<22.5mag/arcsec^2^. While many of these galaxies are giants, about 25 galaxies with M_V_>-17.0 are considered dwarfs. We constructed the cluster galaxy luminosity function (LF) by using these spectroscopic results to calculate the expected fraction of cluster members in each magnitude bin. The faint-end slope of the LF using this method is shallower than the one obtained using a statistical method to correct for background galaxy contamination. We also use the spectroscopy results to define surface brightness criteria to establish membership for the full sample. Using these criteria, we find a LF very similar to the one constructed with the statistical background correction.
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