RED SUPERGIANTS IN THE SOUTHERN MILKY-WAY .1. SEARCH AND CLASSIFICATION TECHNIQUES

We present a detailed description of a continuing survey for distant, cool supergiants near the galactic plane in the southern hemisphere. Candidate stars are found on near-infrared objective-prism plates, and confirming observations are made with near-infrared narrowband photometry and medium-resolution CCD spectroscopy. The fluxes of 36 southern and equatorial standard stars for the eight-color narrowband system are given. We show how stars are classified in temperature and luminosity type and how the photometry is used to derive distances and reddening. Further papers of the series will present data on the new supergiants found and our conclusions as to distant galactic structure in the southern Milky Way. We expect the survey to result in a several-fold increase in the number of cool supergiants known in the Galaxy.