The Solar Neighborhood. XII. Discovery of New High Proper Motion Stars with μ ≥ 04 yr−1 between Declinations −90° and −47°

We report the discovery of 141 new high proper motion systems (μ ≥ 0.″4 yr-1) in the southern sky (δ = -90° to -47°) brighter than UKST plate R59F = 16.5 via our SuperCOSMOS-RECONS search. When combined with the nine systems having μ ≥ 1.″0 yr-1 and/or late spectral type from the initial phases of this effort, we find that 73 of the 150 total systems are moving faster than 0.″5 yr-1 and are therefore new members of the classic Luyten Half-Second sample. These constitute a 21% increase in the sample of stars with μ ≥ 0.″5 yr-1 in the declination region searched, thereby comprising an important addition to this long-neglected region of the sky. Distance estimates are provided for the entire sample, based on a combination of photographic plate magnitudes and Two Micron All Sky Survey photometry, using the relations recently presented by Hambly et al. for the presumed main-sequence stars. Three systems are anticipated to be within 10 pc, and an additional 15 are within 25 pc. Nine of these 18 nearby systems have proper motions falling between 0.″4 and 0.″6 yr-1, hinting at a large population of nearby stars with fast, but not extremely high, proper motions that have not been thoroughly investigated.