The MX Northern Abell Cluster Redshift Survey

Abstract

The results from the COBE satellite show the existence of structure on scales ~10% or more of the horizon scale of the universe. Rich clusters of galaxies from the Abell/Abell, Corwin, & Olowin catalogs show evidence of structure on scales of 100 h-1 Mpc and hold the promise of confirming structure on the scale of the COBE results. An impediment to that promise has been that redshift information has been unavailable for a large percentage of these clusters, so knowledge of their three-dimensional distribution has had large uncertainties. We have been working to greatly expand the sample of Abell clusters with reliable redshifts. Our approach in this effort, through the MX Northern Abell Cluster Redshift Survey, has been to measure redshifts of at least 25 galaxies in each of 95 R >= 1 Abell cluster fields with m10