Streaming motions of galaxy clusters within 12 000 km s−1– II. New photometric data for the Fundamental Plane

We present new R -band photometric data for 447 galaxies, gathered for the 'Streaming Motions of Abell Clusters' (SMAC) project. The data comprise 629 individual measurements of the Fundamental Plane (FP) parameters effective radius ( R _e) and surface brightness (〈 μ 〉_e), derived from r ^1/4-law profile fitting. More than a third of the galaxies were observed more than once. The photometric precision is ∼0.02 mag as judged from comparisons of aperture photometry between repeat observations of galaxies. The combination     which enters into the Fundamental Plane relation, has internal uncertainties of ∼0.008, corresponding to < 2 per cent in estimated distance. Taken individually, the (correlated) internal errors in R _e and 〈 μ 〉_e are ∼8 per cent and ∼0.12 mag respectively. Comparisons with literature data constrain the external random errors to ≲5 per cent in distance (per observation), which is small in comparison to the ∼20 per cent scatter in the FP. The data will form part of a merged catalogue of FP parameters, presented in a companion paper.