"Seeking the Ultraviolet Ionizing Background 
        at z~3 with the Keck Telescope"

               Andrew Bunker

               U.C. Berkeley

I shall discuss an ongoing experiment to search for
the metagalactic Lyman-continuum background at z~3.
We are obtaining one of the deepest optical spectra
ever, using Keck/LRIS to search for the fluorescent
Ly-alpha emission from the population of
clouds whose absorption produces the higher column
density component of the Ly-alpha forest in quasar 
spectra.

I will describe how the results of this study can
be used to constrain the quasar luminosity function
and the contribution of high-redshift star forming
galaxies to the ambient ionizing background.
Preliminary results are presented in 
Bunker, Marleau & Graham (1998) astro-ph/9808111