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A. Jangren, J. J. Salzer (Wesleyan University), G. Wegner (Dartmouth College), C. Gronwall (Johns Hopkins University), J. Melbourne (University of California, Santa Cruz)
We present spectroscopic properties of a sample of 326 emission-line galaxy (ELG) candidates obtained with the MDM 2.4-m telescope. The data include redshifts, reddening estimates, equivalent line widths, H\alpha line fluxes, and emission-line ratios. Our sample is drawn from the Kitt Peak International Spectroscopic Survey (KISS) -- an ongoing wide-field objective-prism survey for extragalactic emission-line objects which to date has discovered over 2000 ELG candidates. The KISS catalog lists redshifts, equivalent widths, and line fluxes, which are determined from the digital objective-prism spectra. Here we explore how well these survey data agree with the MDM follow-up slit spectra.
Our procedure for selecting ELG candidates from KISS observations appears to be very reliable: 96% of the candidates are verified to have emission lines. The KISS objective-prism redshifts are shown to be in good agreement with the redshifts determined from the follow-up spectra. Substantial differences are found for only 5% of the candidates; these are often intermediate-redshift sources where a strong [OIII] line in the objective-prism spectrum was identified as the H\alpha line.
We also use the MDM spectra to classify ELG candidates based on their [NII]/H\alpha and [OIII]/H\beta flux ratios. Slightly more than three-quarters of the ELGs are determined to be starburst galaxies. Active galaxies (mainly Seyfert galaxies and LINERs) make up nearly 20% of the sample.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.