A deep near-infrared survey around the giant radio galaxy PKS 1343-601

We present the results of a deep near-infrared survey of a 36 x 36 arcmin(2) region centred on the giant elliptical radio galaxy PKS 1343-601, suggested to be the core of an unknown rich cluster located at the low Galactic latitude of b = 1.degrees73 in the Great Attractor (GA) region. 19 obvious galaxies and 38 galaxy candidates have been detected; only three of them were previously identified as a galaxy. The total Galactic extinction A(K) towards our survey area is estimated to be 0.6-0.8 mag from the J-K colour of foreground giants. This is systematically lower by about 0.4 mag than A(K) taken from the IRAS/DIRBE extinction map. The number density of galaxies brighter than an extinction-corrected Ks band magnitude of 13 is 42 galaxies deg(-2), five times as high as the overall average in the GA region. However, the number of galaxies within the central 270-kpc radius is less than that of the Norma, Pavo and Centaurus clusters in the GA region. We found no evidence that a rich cluster is associated with PKS 1343-601.