HST, radio and infrared observations of 28 3CR radio galaxies at redshift z ∼ 1 — I. The observations

Hubble Space Telescope images are presented of a sample of 28 3CR radiogalaxies with redshifts in the range 0.6 < z < 1.8, together with maps atcomparable angular resolution of their radio structure, taken using the VeryLarge Array. Infrared images of the fields, taken with the United KingdomInfraRed Telescope, are also presented. The optical images display aspectacular range of structures. Many of the galaxies show highly elongatedoptical emission aligned along the directions of the radio axes, but this isnot a universal effect; a small number of sources are either symmetrical ormisaligned. Amongst those sources which do show an alignment effect, themorphology of the optical emission varies greatly, from a single brightelongated emission region to strings of optical knots stretching from one radiohotspot to the other. The infrared images display much less complexity.Although their significantly lower angular resolution would wash out some ofthe smaller structures seen in the HST images, it is clear that these galaxiesare less aligned at infrared wavelengths than in the optical. In this paper, wediscuss the galaxies individually, but defer a statistical analysis of themulti-waveband properties of the complete sample of sources to later papers inthis series.Comment: 39 pages including 52 figures, LaTeX. Accepted for publication in MNRA