UCO/Lick Observatory
                                               University of California
                                               Santa Cruz, CA 95064 USA

                                               23 May 2003
Dear Colleague:

We are pleased to announce that the completed version of the second Lick 
Northern Proper Motion Catalog (NPM2) is now available on our WWW site 
(http://www.ucolick.org/~npm/NPM2).  The final NPM2 Catalog contains absolute
proper motions, accurate positions, and BV photometry for 232,062 stars
from  8 < B < 18  in all 347 low-galactic-latitude fields comprising NPM2.  
This catalog supersedes the September 2002 preliminary version (295 fields).

A description of the NPM2 Catalog's content and format is given in a 
"ReadMe" file at the URL cited above.  We are now preparing a paper for 
the Astronomical Journal describing the NPM2 phase of the Lick NPM program,
detailing the astrometric and photometric data reductions, and outlining 
the construction of the NPM2 Catalog.  The NPM2 Catalog will also be
deposited with the CDS Strasbourg data center.

The Lick NPM program is based on a two-epoch (1947-1988) photographic 
survey of the sky north of -23 degrees declination.  Together with the 
1993 NPM1 Catalog (148,940 stars in 899 higher-latitude fields), NPM2 
completes the Lick NPM program as it was originally conceived more than 
a half-century ago.  The NPM Catalogs will serve as a database for research 
in Galactic structure, stellar kinematics, and astrometry.

We hope that the WWW release of the NPM2 catalog will encourage interested 
users to examine the Catalog and give us comments and suggestions we can use 
to make the NPM data as useful as possible for the astronomical community.

The NPM2 Catalog is presented in a one-degree zone-catalog format, essentially
similar to NPM1.  At this stage we list identifications for over 90,000
bright (B < ~14) stars from the ACRS, Hipparcos, and Tycho-2 catalogs. 
We are now compiling an NPM2 Cross-Identifications file, much as we
did for NPM1, providing all available identifications, and listing the
categories (e.g. RR Lyrae variable, faint blue star, etc.) under which some
35,000 NPM2 stars were chosen for their special astronomical interest.

The NPM2 Catalog should be cited as:  "Lick Northern Proper Motion Program: 
NPM2 Catalog", by R.B. Hanson, A.R.Klemola, B.F. Jones (UCO/Lick Observatory),
and D.G. Monet (US Naval Observatory, Flagstaff Station).

We also would like to remind users that the J2000 version of NPM1, and the 
42,000-entry NPM1 Cross-Identifications file, are available on our WWW site 
(http://www.ucolick.org/~npm/NPM1).

We thank the National Science Foundation for its long-term support of the
Lick NPM program.  The NPM2 phase of the program was supported by NSF grants 
AST-9530632 and AST-9988105.


With best regards,

Robert B. Hanson
Arnold R. Klemola
Burton F. Jones