The Red Bright Quasar Survey (RBQS)

Abstract

Abstract. We are using the UK Schmidt telescope (UKST) to carry out a new objective prism survey, covering 2000-3000 square degrees of high galactic latitude sky in the equatorial region. The survey is targeted at discovering both bright (R < 18) quasars in general and bright high redshift (2 < z < 4) quasars in particular, which will be valuable for high resolution spectroscopic follow-up studies. We are using a mixture of ultra-violet excess (XJVX) and a new template matching technique to identify all the bright quasars. Details of the project are discussed and some preliminary results of the survey are presented.