Optical (VRI) photometry in the field of the galaxy cluster AC 118 at z=0.31

We present new photometric V -, R- and I-band data for the rich galaxy cluster AC118 at z = 0.31. The new photometry covers an area of 8.6 x 8.6 arcmin(2), corresponding to 2.9 x 2.9 Mpc(2) (H-0 = 50 km s(-1) Mpc(-1), q(0) = 0.5 and Lambda = 0). The data have been collected for a project aimed at studying galaxy evolution through the color-magnitude relation and the fundamental plane. We provide a catalogue including all the sources (N = 1206) detected in the cluster field. The galaxy sample is complete to V = 22.8 mag (N-gal = 574), R = 22.3 mag (N-gal = 649) and I = 20.8 mag(N-gal = 419). We give aperture magnitudes within a fixed aperture of 4.4 arcsec and Kron magnitudes. We also give photometric redshifts for 459 sources for which additional U- and K-band photometry is available. We derive and discuss the V - and R-band luminosity functions. The catalogue, which is distributed in electronic form, is intended as a tool for studies in galaxy evolution.