High-redshift quasars found in sloan digital sky survey commissioning data. V. Hobby-Eberly telescope observations

We report the discovery of 27 quasarswith redshiftsbetween 3.58 and 4.49. The objects were identified as high- redshiftcandidates based on their colors in Sloan Digital Sky Surveycommissioning data. The redshiftswere confirmed with low-resolution spectra obtained at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The quasars' i* magnitudes range from 18.55 to 20.97. Nearly 60% of the quasarcandidates observed are confirmed spectroscopically as quasars. Two of the objects are broad absorption line quasars, and several other quasarsappear to have narrow associated absorption features.