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Figure:
Histograms of redshift distributions for the same BCG samples, as for the
previous figure
|
Having quite low efficiency at this pilot stage it is natural to try
to improve the selection criteria. The analysis of all accumulated
data discussed here, shows that in order to improve the selection of BCGs the
following additional criteria and selection procedures should be applied
to the preselected lists of candidates:
- 1.
- Second priority candidates have very low detection rates for BCGs
(< 20 %) and pick up mainly ELGs of other types which are not in
the focus of our project. So, these objects should not be observed
further except as backup sample.
This will result in an underestimate of the BCG surface density of
20 %
- 2.
- It appears that the majority of bright (mB < )
stellar-like objects are either blue or M-dwarf stars. Thus, additional
examination of candidates on direct images in order to discriminate
between stellar and fuzzy images will allow to remove most of
the obvious brighter star-type interlopers.
- 3.
- The results of follow-up spectroscopy have shown that even part
of the prominent first priority candidates turned out non-emission
objects. Subsequent check of the plate material have shown that some
defects or strong noise peaks looked like strong emission features on
objective prism spectra. Thus, we concluded that it is necessary
to make a careful check of all first priority candidates on
the original spectral plates (scanning of 2 plates of the same region
with cross-check - in the majority of cases) or additional visual
inspection of the candidate spectra - in case of only one plate -
to remove possible dust grains and noise hits.
These improvements allow to increase the discovery rate of BCGs by a factor
of
2, as it is shown in a forthcoming paper by Pustilnik et al.
([1998]).
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1998-11-24