ON THE SPECTRA AND PHOTOMETRY OF M-GIANT STARS

From a sample of 97 very bright M-giant stars in the Solar neighbourho od, high-quality ''intrinsic'' spectra in the spectral range 380 less than or similar to lambda[nm] less than or similar to 900 for all M-sp ectral subtypes of the Case and MK classification systems are obtained . The results are fitted to photospheric synthetic spectra in the rang e 99 less than or similar to lambda[nm] less-than-or-equal-to 12500 in order to infer the corresponding continua. The synthetic spectra are also compared to the intrinsic spectra. The effective temperatures are derived and mathematical spectral classification criteria are found. The (UB)j(VRI)c(JHKLM)ESO photometric data of the sample are also give n. The data are available on the Strasbourg Astronomical Data Centre ( CDS).