Study of the Per OB2 star-forming complex*

In this paper we describe the construction of a Compiled Catalogue (CC) of about 30 000 stars in a nearby region of star formation including the Per OB2 association. The CC is a photometric and astrometric survey with the center at $(\alpha,\delta)_{\rm J2000}=(3^\mathrm{h}51^\mathrm{m}36^\mathrm{s}, 34^\circ36\arcmin)$and radius of 10 degrees. The CC is based on recently published astronomical catalogues, e.g. Hipparcos and Tycho-2, and supplemented by relevant astrophysical data from numerous data sources. The CC is complete down to $V=11.6$mag, in general, and to $V=18.5$mag in the one square degree field centered around the IC 348 cluster. We describe the reduction procedures allowing us to put the data onto one homogeneous system, i.e., the coordinates and proper motions on the Hipparcos system and the photometry on the Johnson system. Typical accuracies of 1... 20 mas for coordinates, 1... 3 mas/yr for proper motions and 0.01... 0.05 mag for B, Vmagnitudes were achieved for the bright CC stars ($V<12$mag). For ≈7000 stars we also collected parallaxes and spectral classes. Down to the completeness limit of the CC, a preliminary proper motion selection yielded more than 1000 probable members of Per OB2. The catalogue is available in electronic form from the CDS at Strasbourg.