DISCOVERY OF 3 UV-BRIGHT Z-GREATER-THAN-2 QUASARS

We report the discovery within the Hamburg quasar surveys and subseque nt UV observations with IUE of 10 bright, high-redshift quasars. While 3 objects appear completely absorbed below 3200 Angstrom, HS 1103+641 6 (z = 2.19), HS 1307+4716 (z = 2.13), HE 1122-1649 (z = 2.40), HE 123 0-2347 (z = 1.85), and HE 1211-1322 (z = 1.12) have been detected with the IUE short wavelength camera. The first three are even brighter th an HS 1700+6416, which is so far the only z > 2 QSO observed successfu lly with HST in the far UV at a resolution and S/N useful for detailed absorption line spectroscopy (Reimers et al. 1992). We briefly discus s the observed frequency of UV-bright high-redshift QSOs in comparison with model predictions as well as prospects of future spectroscopy of the unabsorbed QSOs with HST and FUSE at EUV rest wavelengths.