The SDSS-III APOGEE survey is making excellent progress in mapping the Milky Way galaxy with near-infrared observations from the Northern Hemisphere sky. But to build a complete picture of our galaxy requires a joint effort in optical and near-infrared wavelengths from both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.

To help coordinate observations with other current spectroscopic surveys such as GALAH, Gaia-ESO, RAVE, and LAMOST (LEGUE) and work toward a cross-calibrated understanding of stars in the Milky Way, the SDSS-III APOGEE survey has posted a list of selected target stars from the first year of observation (August 2011-June 2012).

The APOGEE team has put the coordinates and 2MASS stars identifications for a subset of stars that APOGEE has started (and in many cases finished) observing on the web:

http://www.sdss3.org/science/apogee_publications.php

These stars are selected to be located in fields with well-studied open and globular clusters, bulge fields, and equatorial fields. Most of these stars were observing in Year 1 of APOGEE and so the APOGEE spectra for these stars will be released in Data Release 10 (DR10) in July 2013.

APOGEE is releasing this list of stars in advance of DR10 to allow other Milky Way stellar surveys opportunities to plan their current and future observations.