# More redshifts of powerful equatorial radio sources from the BRL sample

## 1 Introduction

Radio sources have many important roles to play in astrophysical and cosmological studies (e.g. see McCarthy 1993 for a review). In order to provide a large, spectroscopically complete sample of luminous radio sources accessible to both northern radio interferometers such as the Very Large Array (VLA) and to large southern telescope facilities, such as the Very Large Telescope, Gemini South, and the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA), Best et al.  recently defined a new sample of very powerful equatorial radio sources from the Molonglo Reference Catalogue (MRC; Large et al. 1981), according to the criteria (see Best et al. for details): $`S_{408\mathrm{M}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{z}}5`$ Jy, $`30^{}\delta +10^{}`$, $`|b|10^{}`$. This sample (hereafter the BRL sample) consists of 178 objects and, following radio imaging, optical imaging, and spectroscopic observations, spectroscopic redshifts were provided for 174 of these in the original paper. The host galaxies of the remaining four sources were all optically identified, but no spectroscopic redshifts were obtained.

In this paper, spectroscopic redshifts are derived from new observations of three of these remaining four objects, 1413$``$215, 1859$``$235 and 1953$``$077 (3C404). In Section 2, details of the observations and data reduction are provided. The reduced spectra are presented and discussed in Section 3. The reader is referred to Best et al.  for a complete description of the sample and its properties.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

Long–slit spectra of 1859$``$235 and 1953$``$077 were taken using the duel–beam ISIS spectrograph on the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) in photometric conditions during service time on the night of 1999 July 5 (see Table 1 for details). The observations were made using the 5700Å dichroic and the R158B and R158R gratings in the blue and red arms of the spectrograph. In the blue arm this provided a spatial scale of 0.19 arcsec per pixel and a spectral resolution of about 19Å, and in the red arm a spatial scale of 0.36 arcsec per pixel and a spectral resolution of about 12Å.

The data were reduced using standard packages within the iraf noao reduction software. After subtraction of the bias level, the spectroscopic data were flat–fielded using observations of internal calibration lamps, and the sky background was removed. The two exposures of each galaxy were combined, removing cosmic ray events, and one dimensional spectra were extracted from an angular extent of 2.9 arcsec along the slit. The extracted spectra were wavelength calibrated using observations of CuNe and CuAr arc lamps, and flux calibration was achieved using observations of the spectrophotometric standard star Kopff 27. The determined fluxes were corrected for any atmospheric extinction arising from the non–unity airmass of the observations.

1413$``$215 was observed at the Keck II telescope in photometric conditions during evening twilight on 1999 July 11 (see Table 1). The observations were made using the Low–Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (LRIS; Oke et al. 1995) with the 150 line / mm grating (7500Å blaze), providing a spatial pixel scale of 0.21 arcsec and a spectral resolution of about 25Å. The galaxy was shifted 10<sup>′′</sup> along the slit between two separate observations to reduce fringing effects. Data reduction followed essentially the same procedure as outlined for the WHT observations, except that the spectrum was extracted from an angular extent of 2.1<sup>′′</sup> along the slit (due to a smaller spatial extent of the object). Feige 110 and HZ44 were used for flux calibration.

## 3 Results and Discussion

The extracted spectra of the three galaxies are provided in Figures 1, 2 and 3, and details of the emission line properties are provided in Table 2. Emission lines are detected for all three objects, confirming the identifications proposed in the paper by Best et al. . For 1859$``$235 and 1413$``$215, several emission lines are detected, providing unambiguous redshift measurements. For 1953$``$077 only a single strong emission line is detected, at 8714Å. This emission line is assumed to be \[OII\] 3727 for a number of reasons: (i) were this \[OIII\] 5007 or H$`\alpha `$ (or any other weaker line), then the lack of any other strong emission lines between 3500 and 9000Å would be very surprising; (ii) weak continuum emission is detected in the red–arm observations down to about 6000Å, ruling out the possibility that the line is Ly$`\alpha `$; (iii) if the line is \[OII\] 3727 then, given the $`R`$ magnitude of the source ($`R=22.90`$), the derived redshift places it in the middle of the $`Rz`$ diagram of the other radio galaxies (cf. Figure 51 of Best et al. 1999). It appears fairly secure, therefore, that this emission line is \[OII\] 3727.

Following these results, the BRL sample is now 99.5% complete. The only object without a spectroscopic redshift in the sample is 1059$``$010 (3C249), whose very faint $`R`$ magnitude ($`R=24.20`$; Best et al. 1999) suggests a minimum redshift of 1.5. Spinrad, Stern and Dey (private communication) have attempted, without success, to obtain a redshift for this object using the Keck Telescope, and Rawlings (private communication) has carried out near–infrared spectroscopy with UKIRT in the J–band and between 1.6 and 2.2 microns, detecting the continuum but no lines. Obtaining the final redshift in the sample may prove difficult.

## Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the Formation and Evolution of Galaxies network set up by the European Commission under contract ERB FMRX– CT96–086 of its TMR programme. The WHT is operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roches de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. The W. M. Keck Observatory is operated as a scientific partnership among the University of California, the California Institute of Technology, and NASA. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. The authors are grateful to the WHT service observer, John Telting, to Wil van Breugel, Carlos De Breuck, Dan Stern and Adam Stanford for kindly observing 1413$``$215 at the Keck Telescope, and to the referee, Steve Rawlings, for helpful comments.