Ultra-cool M dwarfs discovered by QSO surveys .1. The APM objects

Optical searches for highly redshifted QSOs often use a very red B-R color as their main selection criterion. During spectroscopic follow-up, some of the chosen objects are identified not as QSOs but as extremely red stars, a fraction of which will prove to be previously unrecognized dwarfs lying in the solar vicinity. In this first paper of the series, we present standard spectral types and infrared photometry of late-type stars identified during the QSO search by Irwin, McMahon, & Hazard. Of the seventeen stars discovered, nine are late-M giants and eight are late-M dwarfs. Among these are six ultra-cool dwarfs of type M7 or later, some of which are rediscoveries of previously catalogued (and subsequently forgotten) proper motion stars. (C) 1997 American Astronomical Society.