Direct determination of quasar redshifts

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 381, Number 3, January III 2002


Page(s)		L57 - L60
Section		Letters
DOI		http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20011660

A&A 381, L57-L60 (2002)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20011660

Letter

Direct determination of quasar redshifts

J. H. J. de Bruijne¹, A. P. Reynolds¹, M. A. C. Perryman^{1, 2}, A. Peacock¹, F. Favata¹, N. Rando¹, D. Martin¹, P. Verhoeve¹ and N. Christlieb³

¹ Astrophysics Division, European Space Agency, ESTEC, Postbus 299, 2200AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands
² Sterrewacht Leiden, Postbus 9513, 2300RA Leiden, The Netherlands
³ Hamburger Sternwarte, Gojenbergsweg 112, 21029 Hamburg, Germany

(Received 2 November 2001 / Accepted 26 November 2001 )

Abstract
We present observations of 11 quasars, selected in the range $z \approx 2.2$ - 4.1, obtained with ESA's Superconducting Tunnel Junction (STJ) camera on the WHT. Using a single template QSO spectrum, we show that we can determine the redshifts of these objects to about 1%. A follow-up spectroscopic observation of one QSO for which our best-fit redshift ( z = 2.976) differs significantly from the tentative literature value ( $z \approx 2.30$ ) confirms that the latter was incorrect.

Key words: instrumentation: detectors -- galaxies: distances and redshifts -- galaxies: high-redshift -- quasars: absorption lines -- quasars: emission lines -- quasars: general

Offprint request: J. H. J. de Bruijne, Jos.de.Bruijne@esa.int

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