Galactic OB associations in the northern Milky Way Galaxy. I - Longitudes 55 deg to 150 deg

The literature on all OB associations was reviewed, and their IRAS point source content was studied, between galactic longitude 55 and 150 deg. Only one third of the 24 associations listed by Ruprecht et al. (1981) have been the subject of individual studies designed to identify the brightest stars. Distances to all of these were recomputed using the method of cluster fitting of the B main sequence stars, which makes it poossible to reexamine the absolute magnitude calibration of the O stars, as well as for the red supergiant candidate stars. Also examined was the composite HR diagram for these associations. Associations with the best defined main sequences, which also tend to contain very young clusters, referred to here as OB clusters, have extremely few evolved B and A or red supergiants. Associations with poorly defined main sequences and few OB clusters have many more evolved stars. They also show an effect in the upper HR diagram referred to as a ledge by Fitzpatrick and Garmany (1990) in similar data for the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is suggested that the differences in the associations are not just observational selection effects but represent real differences in age and formation history.