Strong emission line HII galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.: I.: Catalog of DR1 objects with oxygen abundances from Te measurements

We present the first edition of the SDSS H II galaxies with Oxygen abundances Catalog ( SHOC), which is a listing of strong emission-line galaxies (ELGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey ( SDSS). Oxygen abundances have been obtained with the classic T-e method. We describe the method exploiting the SDSS database to construct this sample. The selection procedures are described and discussed in detail, as well as some problems encountered in the process of deriving reliable emission line parameters. The method was applied to the SDSS Data Release 1 (DR1). We present 612 SDSS emission-line galaxies (624 separate SDSS targets in total), for which the oxygen abundances 12 + log (O/H) have rms uncertainties less than or equal to 0.20 dex. The subsample of 263 ELGs (272 separate SDSS targets) have an uncertainty less than or equal to 0.10 dex, while 459 ELGs (470 separate SDSS targets) have an uncertainty less than or equal to 0.15 dex. The catalog includes the main parameters of all selected ELGs, the intensities and equivalent widths of hydrogen and oxygen emission lines, as well as oxygen abundances with their uncertainties. The information on the presence of Wolf-Rayet blue and/or red bumps in 109 galaxies is also included. With the use of combined g, r, i SDSS images we performed visual morphological classification of all SHOC galaxies. Four hundred sixty-one galaxies (similar to75%) are classified as confident or probable blue compact galaxies (BCG/BCG?), 78 as irregular ones, 20 as low surface brightness galaxies (LSBG), 10 as obviously interacting, and 43 as spiral galaxies. In creating the catalog, 30 narrow-line active galactic nuclei and 69 LINERs were also identified; these are also presented apart of the main catalog. We outline briefly the content of the catalog, and the prospects of its use for statistical studies of the star formation and chemical evolution issues. Some of these studies will be presented in the forthcoming paper. Finally, we show that the method presented by Kniazev et al. for calculating O+/H+ using intensities of the [O II] lambdalambda7320, 7330 lines for SDSS emission-line spectra in the absence of [O II] lambda3727 line appears to yield reliable results over a wide range of studied oxygen abundances: 7.10 < 12 + log (O/H) < 8.5.