Galaxies in front of quasars:: Markarian 1456 and SDSS J114719.90+522923.2

The chance projection of the disk of Mrk 1456 onto a background QSO is similar to the case of SBS 1543+593-HS 1543+5921. Mrk 1456 is a luminous, late-type spiral galaxy at z approximate to 0.05. Although the QSO, SDSS J114719.90+522923.2 at z approximate to 2, has not yet been observed with ultraviolet spectroscopy, it shows strong Ca II absorption at the redshift of Mrk 1456, which gives evidence that it is a possible damped Ly alpha absorber. Spectroscopy of the star-forming nucleus of Mrk 1456 allows us to apply emission-line diagnostics to infer the chemical abundances at the center of the galaxy and to make a prediction of the expected metallicity on the sight line to the QSO.