We report about the first phase of a wide-angle survey for bright QSOs (12.5<~B<~17.5) in the southern hemisphere, based on objective prism plates taken with the ESO Schmidt telescope over an effective area of ~1000 sq.deg. After digitisation, the extracted spectra were searched for quasar candidates in a largely automated two-stage procedure. Several selection criteria, such as UV excess or presence of emission lines, were applied simultaneously to the databases. Thanks to the high spectral resolution of the spectra, the stellar contamination in the candidate sets could be efficiently kept low. Follow-up spectroscopy has yielded 160 newly discovered QSOs and Seyfert 1 galaxies, plus a variety of other interesting galactic and extragalactic objects. Although the present QSO sample is not statistically "complete" insofar as it has no well-defined flux limit, there is no evidence for strong redshift-dependent selection biases. The extension of the survey over an area of 5000sq.deg. and the construction of flux-limited subsamples are under way.

Cone search capability for table J/A+AS/115/235/table3 (Coordinates, magnitudes, and redshifts of QSOs and Seyfert 1 galaxies)