  We have imaged an empty area of 34'x34' one and a half degree north of the
Virgo cluster core to survey for intracluster planetary nebula candidates. We
have implemented and tested a fully automatic procedure for the selection of
emission line objects in wide-field images, based on the on-off technique from
Ciardullo and Jacoby. Freeman et al. have spectroscopically confirmed a sample
of intracluster planetary nebulae in one Virgo field. We use the photometric
and morphological properties of this sample to test our selection procedure. In
our newly surveyed Virgo field, 75 objects were identified as best candidates
for intracluster PNe.
  The luminosity function of the spectroscopically confirmed PNe shows a
brighter cut-off than the planetary nebula luminosity function for the inner
regions of M87. Such a brighter cut-off is also observed in the newly surveyed
field and indicates a smaller distance modulus, implying that the front end of
the Virgo cluster is closer to us by a significant amount: 14% closer (2.1 Mpc)
than M87 for the spectroscopic field, using the PN luminosity function distance
of 14.9 Mpc to M87, and 19% closer (2.8 Mpc) than M87 for the newly surveyed
field. Independent distance indicators (Tully-Fisher relation for Virgo spirals
and surface brightness fluctuations for Virgo ellipticals) agree with these
findings.
  From these two Virgo cluster fields there is no evidence that the surface
luminosity density for the diffuse stellar component in the cluster decreases
with radius. The luminosity surface density of the diffuse stellar population
is comparable to that of the galaxies.
