Abstract
We acquired spectra for a random sample of galaxies within a 0.83 deg2 region centered on the core of the Centaurus Cluster. Radial velocities were obtained for 225 galaxies to limiting magnitudes of 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. For both, we find a faint-end slope α ~ -1.4. The error in faint-end slope for the statistically corrected LF is ~±0.2. Adjusting the surface brightness membership criteria, we find that the data are consistent with a faint-end slope as shallow as -1.22 or as steep as -1.50. We describe in this paper some of the limitations of using these methods for constructing the galaxy LF. This is Paper II in our investigation of the cluster galaxy LF.
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