The Magellanic Quasars Survey. I. Doubling the Number of Known AGNs
  Behind the Small Magellanic Cloud
  We report the spectroscopic confirmation of 29 new, 12 plausible, and 3
previously known quasars behind the central ~1.5 deg^2 region of the Small
Magellanic Cloud. These were identified in a single 2df/AAOmega observation on
the Anglo-Australian Telescope of 268 candidates selected primarily based on
their mid-IR colors, along with a smaller number of optically variable sources
in OGLE-II close to known X-ray sources. The low detection efficiency was
partly expected from the high surface density of SMC as compared to the LMC
targets and the faintness of many of them (149 with I>20 mag). The expected
number of I<20 mag quasars in the field is ~38, and we found 15 (22 with
plausible) or 40% (60%). We did not attempt to determine the nature of the
remaining sources, although several appear to be new planetary nebulae. The
newly discovered AGNs can be used as reference points for future proper motion
studies, to study absorption in the interstellar medium, and to study the
physics of quasar variability with the existing long-term, highly cadenced OGLE
light curves.
