  We report results from a pilot program to obtain spectroscopy for objects
detected in the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) Medium Imaging Survey (MIS).
Our study examines the properties of galaxies detected by GALEX fainter than
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectroscopic survey. This is the first
study to extend the techinques of Salim et al. 2005 to estimate stellar masses,
star formation rates (SFR) and the b (star formation history) parameter for
star-forming galaxies out to z~0.7. We obtain redshifts for 50 GALEX MIS
sources reaching NUV=23.9 (AB mag), having counterparts in the SDSS Data
Release 4 (DR4). Of our sample, 43 are starforming galaxies with z<0.7, 3 have
emission line ratios indicative of AGN with z<0.7, and 4 objects with z~1 are
QSOs, 3 of which are not previously cataloged. We compare our sample to a much
larger sample of ~50,000 matched GALEX/SDSS galaxies with SDSS spectroscopy;
while our survey is shallow, the optical counterparts to our sources reach ~3
magnitudes fainter in SDSS r magnitude than the SDSS spectroscopic sample. We
use emission line diagnostics for the galaxies to determine that the sample
contains mostly star-forming galaxies. The galaxies in the sample populate the
blue sequence in the NUV-r vs M_r color-magnitude diagram. Our sample has SFRs,
luminosities, and velocity dispersions that are similar to the samples of faint
compact blue galaxies studied previously in the same redshift range by Koo et.
al 1995, Guzman et. al 1996 & Phillips et. al 1997. However, our sample is ~2
mag fainter in surface brightness than the compact blue galaxies. We find that
the star-formation histories for a majority of the galaxies are consistent with
a recent starburst within the last 100 Myr.
