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

                                               30 April 2004
Dear Colleague:

We are pleased to announce the release of a new catalog, the NPM2 
Cross-Identifications and Appendices (NPM2 Cross-IDS), which complements the 
second Lick Northern Proper Motion Catalog (NPM2) released in 2003.  The NPM2
Cross-IDs are now available on our WWW site (http://www.ucolick.org/~npm), 
and should be cited as: "Lick Northern Proper Motion Program: NPM2 Cross-
Identifications and Appendices", by A.R.Klemola, R.B. Hanson, B.F. Jones 
(UCO/Lick Obs.), and D.G. Monet (US Naval Obs. Flagstaff Station).

The NPM2 Cross-IDs will facilitate many practical uses of the NPM2 Catalog, 
allowing users to select NPM2 stars by category (e.g. RR~Lyrae variables) 
or from specific catalogs or literature sources, as well as to identify 
individual stars of interest.  

The main NPM2 Cross-IDs file, with 46,887 entries, lists star names, stellar
type classifications, and publication references for 34,868 "special stars"
selected by Klemola for inclusion in the NPM2 Catalog on account of their
particular astronomical or astrophysical interest.  Major classes of stars
represented include variable stars, red giants, OB stars, carbon stars, 
white dwarf candidates, and faint blue stars.  Many of these stars now have
identifications verified by Klemola using finding charts, variability, or 
proper motion, and the CDS SIMBAD and NASA SkyView databases.

Four Appendices to the NPM2 Catalog detail the 570 literature references and 
list the 164 stellar (occasionally, non-stellar) classes from which the NPM2
"special stars" were selected.  A fifth Appendix provides 1,847 footnotes to
the NPM2 Catalog.  A "ReadMe" file briefly summarizes the NPM2 Cross-IDs and
provides file formats.  Another text file gives detailed documentation on the 
compilation and content of the NPM2 Cross-IDs.

A paper prepared for the Astronomical Journal (Hanson, Klemola, Jones, and 
Monet 2004) describes the NPM2 phase of the Lick NPM program, details the 
astrometric and photometric data reductions, and outlines the construction of 
the NPM2 Catalog and Cross-IDS.  The NPM program is based on a two-epoch 
(1947-1954 and 1970-1988) photographic survey done with the Lick 51 cm (20 in)
Carnegie double astrograph.  The NPM program measured absolute proper motions
for nearly 380,000 stars from 8 < B < 18, covering the northern two-thirds of
the sky (declination > -23 degrees).  The 1993 NPM1 Catalog contains 148,940 
stars in 899 fields at moderate and high galactic latitudes.  The 2003 NPM2 
Catalog contains 232,062 stars in 347 lower-latitude fields, and completes the
Lick 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 also remind users that the NPM1 Catalog (I/199A), the 41,858-entry NPM1 
Cross-Identifications file (I/214), and the NPM2 Catalog (I/283A) are available
by ftp and VizieR query from the CDS Strasbourg data center (CDS catalog 
numbers above), as well as on our WWW site.  The NPM2-Cross-IDS will be 
deposited at CDS in the near future.

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