Luminosity Class III Stars with Excess Far-Infrared Emission

We correlated the Bright Star (BSC) and Michigan Spectral (MSC) Catalogs with the IRAS catalogs to determine which, if any, luminosity class III giant stars have associated circumstellar dust particles. Of more than 40,000 class III giant stars in the BSC and MSC, we find that ≲300 have associated dust. The presence of substantial dust near these stars, most of which are post-main-sequence, first-ascent giants, is not easily explained.