A redshift database towards the Shapley supercluster region

We present a database and catalogue of radial velocities of galaxies towards the region of the Shapley Supercluster (SSC) based on 18 129 measured velocities for 10 702 galaxies in the approximately 300 square degree area between 12h43m00s Dec > − 38° 30′00″. The database contains velocity measurements that have been reported in the literature up until 2015. It also includes 5084 velocities, corresponding to 4617 galaxies, observed by us at Las Campanas Observatory and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, which had not been reported individually until now. Of the latter, 2585 correspond to galaxies with no other previously published velocity measurement before 2015. Every galaxy in the velocity database has been identified with a galaxy extracted from the SuperCOSMOS photometric catalogues. We also provide a combined average velocity catalogue for all 10 702 galaxies with measured velocities, adopting the SuperCOSMOS positions as a homogeneous base. A general magnitude cut-off at R2 = 18.0 mag was adopted (with exceptions only for some of the new reported velocities). In general terms, we confirm the overall structure of the SSC as reported in earlier papers. However, the more extensive velocity data show finer structures, which is to be discussed in a future publication