A deep optical survey of a small region in Aquarius – II. Stellar spectroscopy

This paper describes the objective prism study of 753 stellar objects (606 with $B \leqslant 20.0$) in a survey field of 0.31 degree2 at $l = 36^\circ_. 5, b=-51^\circ_. 1$. Slit spectra were obtained for 103 of the objects, including 33 classified as possibly unusual from the prism images. All the slit spectra revealed normal stars except 7 of the latter group, 3 of which turned out to be white dwarfs, and 4 to be QSOs. We found no evidence for other objects with noticeable emission lines or an unusual energy distribution between 3200 and 5000 Å. The number of white dwarfs is consistent with the model of the galactic disc adopted by Bahcall & Soneira, but favours the higher density luminosity function for white dwarfs of Green and Liebert, Dahn & Sion. One of the white dwarfs belongs to the rare class of DF or DZ. We also present finding charts for all objects in the survey.