Confirmation Spectroscopy of RBQS Quasar Candidates

We are conducting a survey (the Red Bright Quasar Survey; RBQS) to discover BRIGHT (R< 18) quasars in general and bright high redshift (2< z< 4) quasars in particular. We are using a mixture of ultra-violet excess (UVX) and a new template matching technique to identify all bright quasar candidates from a series of UKST objective prism plates. The motivation is that detailed high resolution spectroscopy can be performed on these objects which subsequently will yield important new information on objects which intersect the line of sight to the quasar, and a new sample of bright quasars will enable us to investigate the bright end of the optical quasar luminosity function.