We report on first results from an ongoing program to measure and analyze proper motions for hot subdwarf and white dwarf stars, with the aim of determining to which stellar population sdB stars (in the V magnitude range 10.5 to 14.5) belong. Ours is the largest sample of hot subdwarf proper motions measured to date. Our kinematic analysis suggests that the parent population of these hydrogen-rich sdB stars is as old or older than the old disk. We measure the absolute magnitude of the sdB in the field as M_V_=4.5, providing independent confirmation of absolute V magnitude estimates for these stars from clusters and spectroscopic analyses. Provided it can be shown that the sdO stars evolve from the sdB, then the sdO absolute V magnitude distribution is about 1 magnitude brighter than for the sdB, and 1 magnitude wider.

Cone search capability for table J/A+A/317/689/sd (Astrometric results for the hot subdwarfs (table4 to 9 of the paper))

Cone search capability for table J/A+A/317/689/wd (White dwarf astrometric results from the AC/CAMC and the POSS/GSC efforts (table10 & 11 of the paper))