The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey ( HeViCS ) is the deepest , confusion-limited survey of the Virgo Cluster at far-infrared ( FIR ) wavelengths .
The entire survey at full depth covers \sim 55 sq .
deg .
in 5 bands ( 100-500 µm ) , encompassing the areas around the central dominant elliptical galaxies ( M87 , M86 & M49 ) and extends as far as the NW cloud , the W cloud and the Southern extension .
The survey extends beyond this region with lower sensitivity so that the total area covered is 84 sq .
deg .
In this paper we describe the data , the data acquisition techniques and present the detection rates of the optically selected Virgo Cluster Catalogue ( VCC ) .
We detect 254 ( 34 % ) of 750 VCC galaxies found within the survey boundary in at least one band and 171 galaxies are detected in all five bands .
For the remainder of the galaxies we have measured strict upper limits for their FIR emission .
The population of detected galaxies contains early- as well as late-types although the latter dominate the detection statistics .
We have modelled 168 galaxies , showing no evidence of a strong synchrotron component in their FIR spectra , using a single-temperature modified blackbody spectrum with a fixed emissivity index ( \beta = 2 ) .
A study of the \chi ^ { 2 } distribution indicates that this model is not appropriate in all cases , and this is supported by the FIR colours which indicate a spread in \beta =1–2 .
Statistical comparison of the dust mass and temperature distributions from 140 galaxies with \chi ^ { 2 } _ { dof = 3 } < 7.8 ( 95 % confidence level ) shows that late-types have typically colder , more massive dust reservoirs ; the early-type dust masses have a mean of { log } ( \langle M \rangle / M _ { \sun } ) = 6.3 \pm 0.3 , while for late-types { log } ( \langle M \rangle / M _ { \sun } ) = 7.1 \pm 0.1 .
The late-type dust temperatures have a mean of \langle T \rangle = 19.4 \pm 0.2 K , while for the early-types , \langle T \rangle = 21.1 \pm 0.8 K. Late-type galaxies in the cluster exhibit slightly lower dust masses than those in the field , but the cluster environment seems to have little effect on the bulk dust properties of early-types .
In future papers we will focus more on the scientific analysis of the catalogue ( e.g .
measuring FIR luminosity functions , dust mass functions and resolved gas and dust properties ) .