A complete galaxy redshift sample - III. Methods and catalogue

We present redshifts and photometry for 329 field galaxies selected in five high-latitude fields to limiting isophotal B_j magnitudes of ∼17. The essential spectroscopy was obtained at the Anglo–Australian Telescope and we refer to this survey as the Anglo–Australian Redshift Survey (AARS). We demonstrate that our photometric precision is better than 0.10 mag and that our radial velocity errors are mostly below $$45\enspace\text {km}\enspace \text s^{-1}$$. The major scientific results from the survey are presented in other papers in this series. Here we discuss only briefly some aspects of the galaxy distribution and spectral-line statistics.