The LDSS deep redshift survey

Using a new multislit spectrograph LDSS, we have obtained intermediate dispersion spectroscopy for a new sample of 149 faint objects selected randomly from the magnitude range 21 ≤ bJ ≤ 22.5 in three high-latitude fields. Our overall success rate of 81 per cent for spectroscopic identification is comparable to that achieved in an earlier fibre survey to bJ = 21.5, demonstrating that LDSS has pushed the limiting magnitude for field surveys 1 mag deeper. Of identified objects, 28 per cent are galactic stars, in reasonable agreement with estimates based on image classification. The remaining objects are galaxies with redshifts 0 < Z < 0.7. (author)