A QSO survey via optical variability and zero proper motion in the M92 field. V. Completion of the QSO sample

Abstract

AbstractWe present results from the spectroscopic follow‐up observation of additional QSO candidates in the variability and proper motion (VPM) survey field around M92. In the previous studies, the VPMsurvey has shown to be an efficient way to select QSOs; the QSO sample was confined to the magnitude range B ≲ 19.8 with a completeness estimated to ∼ 90% for B ≲ 19.5. Here we study the faint end (B > 19.8) of the candidate list and check the completeness of the brighter (B < 19.7) QSO subsample. We first study an additional 34 brighter QSO candidates selected by FOCA UV brightness, radio detection, or optical colours. Only one new QSO was found. We show that a two‐colour search making use of FOCA 2 000 magnitudes efficiently selects QSOs, Seyfert galaxies, and NELGs. However, there is no QSO found from this method which would not have been selected by the VPM method as well. The main aim of this paper is to identify the VPM QSO candidates with 19.8 < B < 20.5. We select 53 candidates of which 50 were observed; 26 QSOs, 2 Sey1, and 2 NELGs were found. The fraction of QSOs and Sey1s among the faint high‐priority candidates amounts to 71%. The whole AGN sample comprises now 123 QSOs and 18 Sey1s. We find that the extended VPM QSO sample does not significantly differ from other optically selected samples with regard to their low‐resolution spectra and optical broad‐band colours.