Solar neighborhood. XXXV. Distances to M dwarfs

The stars have 6.67{<=}V_J_{<=}21.38 and 3.50{<=}(V_J_-K_S_){<=}9.27, covering the entire M dwarf spectral sequence from M0.0 V through M9.5 V. This sample therefore provides a comprehensive snapshot of our current knowledge of the southern sky for the nearest M dwarfs that dominate the stellar population of the Galaxy.

Roughly one-third of the 1748 systems, each of which has an M dwarf primary, have published high quality parallaxes, including 179 from the REsearch Consortium On Nearby Stars astrometry program. For the remaining systems, we offer photometric distance estimates that have well-calibrated errors. The bulk of these (~700) are based on new V_J_R_KC_I_KC_ photometry acquired at the CTIO/SMARTS 0.9m telescope, while the remaining 500 primaries have photographic plate distance estimates calculated using SuperCOSMOS B_J_R_59F_I_IVN_ photometry.