|
Description
We present Lick Observatory slit spectra of 38 objects which were claimed to have pronounced ultraviolet excess and emission lines. Zhan & Chen (ZC) selected these objects by eye from a UK Schmidt telescope IIIaJ objective prism plate of a field at 0h 0.0deg (l ~= 98 deg, b ~= -60 deg). We concentrate on m(J) ~= 18-19 objects which Zhan and Chen (ZC) thought were most likely to be quasistellar objects (QSOs) at redshift z(em) >= 2.8. Most of our spectra have FWHM spectral resolutions of about 4 A, and relatively high S/N of about 10-50, although some have FWHM ~= 15 A or lower S/N. We find eleven QSOs, four galaxies at z ~= 0.1, twenty-two stars and one unidentified object with a low S/N spectrum. The ZC lists are found to contain many QSOs at low z but few at high z, as expected. Of eleven objects which ZC suggested were QSOs with z(prism) <= 2.8, eight (73%) are QSOs. But only three of twenty-five candidates with z(prism) >= 2.8 are QSOs, and only two (8%) of these are at z >= 2.8. Unfortunately, the ZC prism redshifts are often incorrect: only five of the eleven QSOs are at redshifts similar to z(prism). Six of the QSOs show absorption systems, including Q0000+027A with a relatively strong associated C IV absorption system, and Q0008+008 (V ~= 18.9) with a damped Ly alpha system with an HI column density of 10^21 cm^-2. The stars include a wide variety of spectral types. There is one new DA 4 white dwarf at 170 pc, one sdB at 14 kpc, and three M stars. The rest are of types F, G, and K. We have measured the equivalent widths of the Ca II K line, the G band, and the Balmer lines in ten stars with the best spectra, and we derive metallicities. Seven of them are in the range -2.5 <= [Fe/H] <= -1.7, while the others are less metal poor. If the stars are dwarfs, then they are at distances of 1 to 7 kpc, but if they are giants, typical distances will be about 10 kpc.
|
