A SEARCH FOR ACTIVE STAR-FORMING GALAXIES WITH THE ESO-1 METER SCHMIDT TELESCOPE

A new search for active galaxies has been conducted using the ESO 1 me ter Schmidt telescope, in order to build a sample of emission lines an d ultraviolet excess objects. The observational strategy was focussed on getting deeper detection and better completeness on faint apparent magnitude objects than those obtained in preceding surveys. The reduct ion procedure aims at a maximum astrophysical output before any comple mentary follow-up, thus we expect an easy selection of interesting tar gets from the catalog of candidate galaxies (to be published later) wh en future observations will be planned. The redshifts are measured on Schmidt objective prism plates with a mean accuracy of 160 km s-1. Thi s accuracy has been checked by means of published velocities up to 500 0 km s-1, but the emission line galaxies detected have redshifts up to z=0.06. The R magnitudes, (U-R) colors, isophotal diameters, surface brightnesses and quantitative morphological parameters are derived fro m U/R bicolor direct plates. Colors are tied to the U, R Basel system by means of a statistical comparison of the field star instrumental co lor distribution with the field star Basel color distribution at a sym metric Galactic latitude. The accuracy of the (U-R)Basel zero point is at best 0.10 magnitude. The asymptotic R magnitudes are calibrated in Cousins system with ESO-LV small diameter galaxies, and are thought t o be accurate to 0.30 magnitude. The expected limiting R magnitude of the survey is 18.5. The present paper is limited to a description of t he methodology, illustrated with preliminary results obtained in two f ields.