3 Results of follow-up spectroscopy

In total 196 new candidates and 13 known ELGs have been observed. Among them 128 are new or confirmed emission line galaxies, 6 are quasars (all with redshifts in the range 2.93 to 3.35) and 23 are galaxies without emission lines (only 5 of them have good enough S/N ratio to identify absorption features and to measure redshifts). The remaining 52 objects appeared to be either stars with characteristic absorption lines or stellar objects with featureless spectra mainly due to insufficient signal-to-noise ratio to identify weak lines.

3.1 Emission-line galaxies

The new emission line galaxies are listed in Table 2 containing the following information:
Column 1: The object's IAU-type name with the prefix HS.
Column 2: Right ascension for epoch B1950.
Column 3: Declination for epoch B1950. The coordinates were measured on direct plates of the HQS and are accurate to $\sim$ 2$\hbox{$^{\prime\prime}$}$ (Hagen et al. 1995).
Column 4: Heliocentric velocity and its rms uncertainty in km s^-1.
Column 5: Apparent B-magnitude obtained by calibration of digitized photoplates with photometric standard stars (Engels et al. 1994), having an rms accuracy of $\sim$ $0\hbox{$.\!\!^{\rm m}$}5$ for objects fainter than m_B = $16\hbox{$.\!\!^{\rm m}$}0$ (Popescu et al. 1996). Since the algorithm to calibrate the objective prism spectra is optimized for point sources the brightnesses of extended galaxies are underestimated. We expect that uncertainties of the magnitudes can be up to 2 mag (Popescu et al. 1996).
Column 6: Absolute B-magnitudes calculated from the apparent B-magnitude and heliocentric velocity. No correction for galactic extinction is made because all observed objects are located at high galactic latitudes and because the corrections are significantly smaller than the uncertainties of the magnitudes.
Column 7: Preliminary spectral classification type according to the spectral data presented in this article. BCG means that the galaxy posesses a characteristic HII-region spectrum and low enough luminosity, SBN and DANS are galaxies of lower excitation with a corresponding position in line ratio diagrams, as discussed in Paper I. SBN are the brighter fraction of this type. The Seyfert galaxy shows widened H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ and strong and widened HeII$\lambda$4686 Å line. SA are probable super-associations in the outskirts of two dwarf spirals. Two objects are difficult to classify. They are coded as NON.
Column 8: One or more alternative names, according to the information from NED.

The spectra of all emission-line galaxies are shown in the Appendix A.

The results of line flux measurements are given in Table 4. It contains the following information:
Column 1: The object's IAU-type name with the prefix HS.
Column 2: Observed flux (in 10^-16ergs^-1cm^-2) of the H$\beta$$\lambda$4861 Å line. For few objects without H$\beta$ emission line the fluxes are given for H$\alpha$ marked by an asterisk. For about 10 objects observed during non-photometric conditions this parameter is unreliable and marked by (:)
Columns 3, 4, 5: The observed flux ratios [OII]/H$\beta$,[OIII]/H$\beta$ and H$\alpha$/H$\beta$.
Columns 6, 7: The observed flux ratios [NII]$\lambda$6583 Å/H$\alpha$, and ([SII]$\lambda$6716 Å + [SII]$\lambda$6731 Å)/H$\alpha$.
Columns 8, 9, 10: Equivalent widths of the lines [OII]$\lambda$3727 Å, H$\beta$ and [OIII]$\lambda$5007 Å. For few objects without detected H$\beta$ emission line the equivalent widths are given for H$\alpha$ marked by an asterisk.

Below we give notes on several individual objects in Table 2.

HS0737+4011 This is a comet-like galaxy. The spectrum is shown for its head.
HS0811+4913 This is a probable super-association (SA) at 75$\hbox{$^{\prime\prime}$}$ to NEE from the nucleus of the SA(s)cd galaxy NGC 2541 (M_B = -17.5) with a radial velocity 556 kms^-1.
HS1035+4758 Nearby BCG with a recent supernovae type IIP (SN1998bv, Kniazev et al. 1998; Merlino et al. 1998; Pustilnik et al. 1999).
HS1057+4632 KUG 1047+465 is at 67$\hbox{$^{\prime\prime}$}$ to NNE.
HS1102+4120 An object resembling on the Digital Sky Survey (DSS) an elliptical galaxy with a size $15\hbox{$^{\prime\prime}$}\times12\hbox{$^{\prime\prime}$}$ elongated NE-SW. Due to strong [SII] lines the galaxy is classified as LINER in diagnostic diagrams involving this line. But its luminosity is untypically low for a LINER. An alternative classification is therefore an HII galaxy with some enhanced [SII] shock excitation (post-merger starburst?).
HS1457+4458AB Two ELGs with close redshifts at $\approx$20$^{\prime\prime}$ from each other (15 kpc in projection). Interacting pair?
HS1542+4116 Seemingly a dwarf companion of the SB(r)b galaxy NGC 5993, which is at 52$\hbox{$^{\prime\prime}$}$ to the west. This SB galaxy is a component of the pair KPG 471.
HS1604+4127 Seemingly a dwarf companion of a barred dwarf spiral CGCG 1604.0+4127 at 41$\hbox{$^{\prime\prime}$}$ to NE. The latter is a component of the galaxy pair KPG 482.
HS1614+4709 Probable companion of the face-on dwarf spiral UGC 10310$\equiv$Arp 2.
HS1643+4015 This is a disturbed galaxy of about 24$\hbox{$^{\prime\prime}$}$in extent with two knots in the central part. The spectrum is shown for the brighter eastern one.
HS1717+4955 Seemingly a dwarf companion of the SB(s)dm galaxy UGC 10806 (M_B = -17.8) with a radial velocity of $\sim$ 927 kms^-1 (see for details Kniazev et al. 1999).

Several new BCGs from this paper were reobserved with higher S/N ratio in order to measure the flux of the [OIII]$\lambda$4363 line, necessary to determine unambiguously the electron temperature $T_{\rm e}$([OIII]) of the HII-region and the oxygen abundance. A preliminary determination according to the procedure decribed by Izotov et al. (1997) shows a log(O/H)+12 for the five most metal-deficient BCGs HS 0822+3542, HS 0837+4717, HS 1013+3809, HS 1033+4757 and HS 1442+4250 to be 7.4, 7.68, 7.63, 7.7 and 7.7, respectively. A more detailed presentation of their spectroscopy will appear in forthcoming publications.

3.2 Quasars

In the course of our follow-up spectroscopy six QSOs were discovered with a strong emission line in the wavelength region between 5000 Å and the sensitivity break of the Kodak IIIa-J photoemulsion near 5400 Å. For all of them it was Ly$\alpha$$\lambda$1216 redshifted to z $\sim$ 3. This strong line produces an easily visible emission peak in the digitized prism spectra even for very faint objects (B $\sim 19\hbox{$.\!\!^{\rm m}$}0 - 20\hbox{$.\!\!^{\rm m}$}0$)which is hard to distinguish from low-redshifted [OIII] features. In other cases QSOs normally were not selected as candidates for follow-up spectroscopy.

The data for these six new high-redshift quasars are presented in Table 3. Their finding charts and plots of spectra can be found on www-site of the Hamburg Quasar Survey (http://www.hs.uni-hamburg.de/hqs.html).

3.3 Non emission-line objects

In total for 75 candidates no (trustworthy) emission lines are detected. We divided them into three categories.

3.3.1 Absorption line galaxies

For five bright non-ELG galaxies the signal-to-noise ratio of our spectra was sufficient to detect absorption lines, allowing the determination of redshifts. The data are presented in Table 5.

3.3.2 Stellar objects

To separate the stellar objects among all objects without emission lines we used a list of the most common stellar features as a template, and cross-correlated this list with observed the spectra. As a result we found 31 objects with definite stellar spectra and redshifts close to zero. Three of them are obvious M-stars. The rest were classified roughly in categories from definite A-stars to definite G-stars, with most of them G-type, and intermediate between F and G. The data for these stars are presented in Table 6.

3.3.3 Non-classified objects

39 non emission-line objects are hard to classify. Their continuum have too low signal-to-noise ratio to detect trustworthy absorption features, or small EW emission lines. 18 of them are certainly non-stellar on DSS images. For half of these galaxies we have spectra only in the range $\approx$ 4000 to $\approx$ 5400 Å, and they could have emission in H$\alpha$. For the other half we have spectra in the range $\approx$ 4000 to $\approx$ 7000 Å, and we can exclude the presence of strong H$\alpha$.The remaining 21 objects are indistinguishable from stellar ones, and we suggest that most of them are galactic stars.