  We present a dynamical analysis of the galaxy cluster Abell 1942 based on a
set of 128 velocities obtained at the European Southern Observatory. Data on
individual galaxies are presented and the accuracy of the determined velocities
is discussed as well as some properties of the cluster. We have also made use
of publicly available Chandra X-ray data. We obtained an improved mean redshift
value z = 0.22513 \pm 0.0008 and velocity dispersion sigma = 908^{+147}_{-139}
km/s. Our analysis indicates that inside a radius of ~1.5 h_{70}^{-1} Mpc (~7
arcmin) the cluster is well relaxed, without any remarkable feature and the
X-ray emission traces fairly well the galaxy distribution. Two possible optical
substructures are seen at ~5 arcmin from the centre towards the Northwest and
the Southwest direction, but are not confirmed by the velocity field. These
clumps are however, kinematically bound to the main structure of Abell 1942.
X-ray spectroscopic analysis of Chandra data resulted in a temperature kT = 5.5
\pm 0.5 keV and metal abundance Z = 0.33 \pm 0.15 Z_odot. The velocity
dispersion corresponding to this temperature using the T_X-sigma scaling
relation is in good agreement with the measured galaxies velocities. Our
photometric redshift analysis suggests that the weak lensing signal observed at
the south of the cluster and previously attributed to a "dark clump", is
produced by background sources, possibly distributed as a filamentary
structure.

Astrophysics