  We announce here the public availability of the Edinburgh/Durham Southern
Galaxy Catalogue (EDSGC, http://www.edsgc.org). This objective galaxy catalogue
was constructed using the COSMOS micro-densitometer at the Royal Observatory
Edinburgh and constitutes one of the largest digitized galaxy surveys currently
in existence. The EDSGC contains a total of 1,495,877 galaxies (each with 27
image parameters) covering an contiguous area of 1182 sq deg centered on the
South Galactic Pole. The data consists of photographic bj magnitudes calibrated
via CCD sequences which provide a plate-to-plate accuracy of bj~0.1. Extensive
external checks have demonstrated that the global EDSGC photometry is free of
large-scale systematic gradients and is therefore, ideal for studying the
distribution of galaxies on large angular scales. Independent spectroscopy of
EDSGC galaxies has shown that the accuracy of the star-galaxy separation is
consistent with earlier visual checks and that only 12% of EDSGC galaxies are
potentially mis-classified. This paper is intended to provide a summary of the
essential details of the catalogue's design and construction as well as provide
a brief summary of the main scientific achievements using the EDSGC over the
last ten years.
