We present further spectroscopic observations for a sample of galaxies selected in the vacuum ultraviolet (UV) at 2000{AA} from the FOCA balloon-borne imaging camera of Milliard et al. (1992A&A...257...24M). This work represents an extension of the initial study by Treyer et al. (Cat. ). Our enlarged catalogue contains 433 sources (~3 times as many as in our earlier study) across two FOCA fields. 273 of these are galaxies, nearly all with redshifts z~0-0.4. Nebular emission-line measurements are available for 216 galaxies, allowing us to address issues of excitation, reddening and metallicity. The UV and H{alpha} luminosity functions strengthen our earlier assertions that the local volume-averaged star formation rate is higher than indicated from earlier surveys. Moreover, internally within our sample, we do not find a steep rise in the UV luminosity density with redshift over 0<z<0.4. Our data are more consistent with a modest evolutionary trend, as suggested by recent redshift survey results. Investigating the emission-line properties, we find no evidence for a significant number of AGN in our sample; most UV-selected sources to z~0.4 are intense star-forming galaxies.

Cone search capability for table J/MNRAS/312/442/table7 (The updated UV-z catalogue)