A 2dF survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud

We present a catalogue of new spectral types for hot, luminous stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The catalogue contains 4161 objects, giving an order-of-magnitude increase in the number of SMC stars with published spectroscopic classifications. The targets are primarily B- and A-type stars (2862 and 853 objects respectively), with one Wolf‐Rayet, 139 O-type and 306 FG stars, sampling the main sequence to ∼mid-B. The selection and classification criteria are described, and objects of particular interest are discussed, including UV-selected targets from the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT )e xperiment, Be and B[e] stars, ‘anomalous A supergiants’ and composite-spectrum systems. We examine the incidence of Balmer-line emission, and the relationship between Hγ equivalent width and absolute magnitude for BA stars. Ke yw ords: stars: early-type ‐ stars: emission-line, Be ‐ stars: fundamental parameters ‐ Hertzsprung‐Russell (HR) diagram ‐ Magellanic Clouds.