Discovery of a new bright southern QSO.

Abstract

WithIn the newly started Hamburg/ESO survey for bright southern quasars the low-redshift QSO HE 1029-1401 (z = 0.086) was found by automated search on objective prism plates and subsequently confirmed by slit spectroscopy. With v = 13.86 it is among the three brightest QSOs in the sky and the brightest ever found by optical selection. Broad band optical and NIR photometry together with IUE observations are used to construct the energy distribution between 3.5 microns and 1450 A. The UV continuum flux at 1600 A offλ = 4.10^-14^ ergs^-1^cm^-2^A^-1^ ranges it among the UV brightest AGN in total, making HE 1029-1401 a prime target for future monitoring studies. While its dereddened absolute magnitude of Mv = -25.1 (H_0_ = 50 km s^-1^Mpc^-1^) clearly distinguishes it from Seyfert 1 galaxies, HE 1029-1401 is close enough to allow an easy detection of its host galaxy already on an ESO (R) survey print.