Discovery of a z=0.808 damped Lyman-alpha system candidate in a UV selected quasar spectrum

We present the observation of a new intermediate redshift damped Lyman-alpha absorption system candidate, discovered in the course of a spectroscopic follow-up for identifying the sources detected in a 150 A wide bandpass UV-imaging survey at 2000 A. The system displays very strong MgII and FeII lines and a high FeII/MgII ratio, which, following photoionization models, indicates a very high neutral hydrogen column density. Such kind of systems being very rare at redshifts <1.7, but of prime importance for understanding the evolution of star formation in galaxies, the newly discovered candidate deserves further investigations in a near future