We report the discovery of twenty-one hitherto unknown bright southern
ultracool dwarfs with spectral types in the range M7 to L5.5, together with new
observations of a further three late M dwarfs previously confirmed. Three more
objects are already identified in the literature as high proper motion stars;we
derive their spectral types for the first time. All objects were selected from
the 2MASS All Sky and SuperCOSMOS point source databases on the basis of their
optical/near-infrared colours, J-band magnitudes and proper motions. Low
resolution (R βΌ 1000) JH spectroscopy with the ESO/NTT SOFI spectrograph
has confirmed the ultracool nature of 24 targets, out of a total of 25
candidates observed. Spectral types are derived by direct comparison with
template objects and compared to results from H2βO and FeH indices. We also
report the discovery of one binary, as revealed by SOFI acquisition imaging;
spectra were taken for both components. The spectral types of the two
components are L2 and L4 and the distance βΌ 19 pc. Spectroscopic distances
and transverse velocities are derived for the sample. Two βΌ L5 objects lie
only βΌ 10 pc distant. Such nearby objects are excellent targets for
further study to derive their parallaxes and to search for fainter, later
companions with AO and/or methane imaging.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, accepted to MNRA