THE ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL      VOLUME 106, NUMBER 2, PAGE 426        AUGUST 1993

  LICK SLIT SPECTRA OF THIRTY-EIGHT OBJECTIVE PRISM QUASAR CANDIDATES AND LOW
                            METALLICITY HALO STARS

                                 DAVID TYTLER

 Department of Physics, and Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, 0111,
     University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0111
                   Electronic mail: tytler@cass155.ucsd.edu

                                 XIAO-MING FAN

  Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, 0111, University of California,
    San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0111 and Department of Astronomy,
                      Columbia University, New York 10027
                     Electronic mail: fan@cass153.ucsd.edu

                     VESA T. JUNKKARINEN AND ROSS D. COHEN

  Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, 0111, University of California,
                  San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0111
               Electronic mail: vesa@ucsd.edu, rdcohen@ucsd.edu

                                   ABSTRACT

    We present Lick Observatory slit spectra of 38 objects which were
    claimed to have pronounced ultraviolet excess and emission lines.  Zhan
    & Chen selected these objects by eye from a UK Schmidt telescope IIIaJ
    objective prism plate of a field at 0 h 0.0 deg (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.