The ESO Nearby Abell Clusters Survey (ENACS): Velocity dispersion distribution for a complete cluster sample

We use a set of 91 clusters observed in the course of the ESO Nearby Abell Cluster Survey (ENACS) and another 37 clusters taken from the literature in order to construct a volume-limited sample of nearby clusters (z <0.08). We define the 3-dimensional Abell richness class R3D and we evaluate the spatial density of clusters with R3D ≥1. For a subset of 43 clusters with N≥10 members and with richness class R3D ≥1 we evaluate the distribution function of the cluster velocity dispersions. © 1996 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) Amsterdam B.V. Published in The Netherlands under license by Gordon and Breach Science.