THE SOUTHERN PROPER MOTION PROGRAM - II - A CATALOG AT THE SOUTH GALACTIC POLE

We describe the Yale/San Juan Southern Proper Motion (SPM) Catalog 1.0 , which provides positions, absolute proper motions, and photographic BV photometry for 58,880 objects at the South Galactic pole. The sky c overage of the SPM Catalog 1.0 is about 720 deg(2) in the magnitude ra nge 5 < V < 18.5. About 55% of all catalog stars are randomly chosen, whereas the remainder contains numerous astrophysically interesting ob jects drawn from various lists and databases. The accuracy of position s and absolute proper motions is 40-150 mas and 3-8 mas yr-l, respecti vely, depending on the star's magnitude. The high-end astrometric accu racy applies to the stars brighter than V = 15. A great deal of effort was put into correcting positions and proper motions for the magnitud e-dependent systematic errors. The catalog can be used for Galactic st ructure studies and deep CCD-frame astrometric calibration and as a da tabase for stars, galaxies, and other objects at the south Galactic po le. The catalog is supplemented by calibrated CCD BV photometry in sel ected 13' x 13' areas.