Extended ROSAT Bright Cluster Sample

Like the original BCS and employing an identical selection procedure, the BCS extension is compiled from ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS) data in the northern hemisphere ({delta}>=0{deg}) and at high Galactic latitudes (|b|>=20{deg}). It comprises 99 X-ray-selected clusters of galaxies with measured redshifts z<=0.3 (as well as eight more at z>0.3) and total fluxes between 2.8x10^-12^ and 4.4x10^-12^erg/cm^2^/s in the 0.1-2.4keV band (the latter value being the flux limit of the original BCS).

The extension can be combined with the main sample published in 1998 to form the homogeneously selected extended BCS (eBCS), the largest and statistically best understood cluster sample to emerge from the RASS to date. The nominal completeness of the combined sample (defined with respect to a power-law fit to the bright end of the BCS logN-logS distribution) is relatively low at 75per cent (compared with 90per cent for the high-flux sample of Paper I).