SIMBAD references

From a mosaic of rather deep V and I images of the CG 30/CG 31 region we report distances and absorptions of these and other interesting interstellar features, the distances and absorptions estimates are based on shifting a new (V-I)₀-M_V relation obtained from nearby, presumably unreddened Hipparcos stars with luminosity class V classification to fit confining trends in the (V-I)-V diagram. The possible success of the fit is due to the combination of the rather faint limiting magnitude of the V, I data and the inclusion of absolute magnitude in the range [1 | 10] and not least to the fact that M_V does not depend linearly on (V-I)₀ but has a gentle wavy appearance. Malmquist bias corrections are found not to be required to our intrinsic relation. Generally speaking the blue confinements are relevant for the most distant, less reddened stars whereas the red confinements pertain to the nearest most reddened stars. At 660pc we find an absorption A_V=2.8mag, at ≃400pc a possible feature with A_V≃0.5mag and finally at 200pc we propose a feature with A_V=3.6mag. We identify this latter feature with the windblown cometary tail of CG 31 and propose that 200pc could be the common distance of the association of cometary globules in the Vela - CG - Annulus conversely to the generally assumed value of 400 - 450pc. The CG 30/CG 31/ CG 38 complex may consequently be ∼200pc removed from the Vela OB2 association. In the tail region of CG 31 the most distant main sequence stars included in the sample are observed at 2.6kpc with A_V=2.8mag at b=-1.6deg 2.6kpc does not bring us beyond one scale height of the disk gas. In the less reddened part of the region we reach 4.4kpc and A_V=1.7mag Because of the excellent precision of the Hipparcos M_V determination and the good photometric accuracy of our V and I data the accuracy of (Δr)/(r) is 10-20% if individual absorption features may be fitted with Δ(V-M_V)=0.5mag-1.0mag and Δ[Δ(V-I)]=0.1mag-0.2mag which seems possible. The uncertainty in the (A_I)/(A_V) ratio introduces another 5% uncertainty in (Δr)/(r). We further propose to identify the stars along the red confinement of the complete color - magnitude diagram as red clump giants at a constant distance and with absorption ranging from almost nothing to A_V>6.2.mag Nine of these 14 stars are concentrated in a small region at 1kpc only 2.3pc across. In the color - magnitude diagram we find another feature being exactly parallel to the reddening vector and located where the stellar densities seem to wane. The iso-density contours with 12-30 stars per (V-I,V) bin are parallel to a shifted reddening line. Assuming that these contours mainly are populated by red clump giants and that the solar distance from the Galactic Center is 8.5kpc the shift locates these stars at 13-14kpc, so maybe we have a direct measure of the Milky Way radius.