Interstellar reddening from the Hipparcos and Tycho catalogues II. Nearby dust features at the NGP associated with approaching HI gas

The Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues offer an interesting possibility to stud y the local distribution of the interstellar reddening from the combination of data contained in the catalogues: Hipparcos parallaxes, Tycho B - V and spectral and luminosity classification compiled from the literature, mainl y the Michigan Catalogs. In some cases the distances to intermediate velocity (IV) gas features may be estimated from positional coincidence between HI gas in narrow velocity intervals and EB-V v. distance features extracted independently from the Hi pparcos and Tycho Catalogues. Presently about 33 000 sight lines are availa ble for interstellar studies. Apart from the IV Arch the other possible dust counterparts are identified without a priori knowledge of the positions of the 21 cm gas with deviating velocities. Some features are revealed immediately in the EB-V v. distance diagram for the north galactic cap. Color excesss - distance data for b > 60 degrees reveal two dust features at approximate to 50pc and approximate to 300pc with color excesses much larger than the average NGP reddening. We present circumstantial evidence that the distances of these features may p ertain mainly to gas with intermediate negative velocity. The nearest NGP d ust spike is sharply defined and may be related to a 21 cm feature with V-l sr in the range [-37 \ -27] km s(-1). The 300 pc feature may be related to three distinct hydrogen features: the edge of a [-60 \ -57.5] km s(-1) stru cture, and a fragmented loop with V-lsr between -30 and -25 km s(-1). These results indicate that high velocity gas may be local, a suggestion gaining ground since the discovery of low velocity bridges. Another result is that gas to dust ratio along the sight lines at the posit ional associations are found to N-H/EB-V less than or similar to 5 10(20) c m(-2) mag(-1), an order of magnitude smaller than the canonical value. If t his implies depletion it is no wonder that interstellar absorption lines wi th velocities matching the IV gas have not been observed. Since dust is predominantly destroyed by shocks in the warm neutral/ionized part of the interstellar medium and we discuss features with larger than n ormal dust/gas ratio the IV gas could be cold. There is just an indication of a shell like structure between 30 and 50 pc where the proposed Perseus Superbubble is expected to be located between 50 and 80 pc.