We present three color, BVI maps of the Small Magellanic Cloud. The maps contain precise photometric and astrometric data for about 2.2 million stars in 11 fields located in central regions of the SMC bar covering ca. 2.4 square degrees on the sky. Mean brightness of stars is derived from observations collected in the course of the OGLE-II microlensing search from about 130, 30 and 15 measurements in the I, V and B-bands, respectively. Accuracy of the zero points of photometry is about 0.01 mag, and astrometry 0.15 arcsec (with possible systematic error up to 0.7 arcsec).
The maps of the SMC are the first from the series of similar maps covering other OGLE fields: LMC, Galactic bulge and Galactic disk. The data are very well suited for many projects, particularly for the SMC which has been neglected photometrically for years. Because of potentially great impact on many astrophysical fields we decided to make the SMC data available to the astronomical community from the OGLE Internet archive mirror at Princeton University. See README file there for details.
Users of these data are kindly requested to send us a short note. Any comments about the data and the form of their presentation are also welcome as they can improve the future releases of photometric maps of other OGLE-II fields. Send your messages to this address.
