The progenitors of SN 2008S and the 2008 luminous transient in NGC 300 were deeply dust-enshrouded massive stars, with extremely red mid-infrared (MIR) colors and relatively low bolometric luminosities (~5x10^4^L_{sun}). Because of the implied frequency of events similar to SN 2008S and NGC 300 and the interesting character of their progenitors, we searched for analogous sources in archival Spitzer imaging of nearby galaxies. Our goal was to identify the underlying subpopulation of massive stars from which these progenitors emerge, to characterize their properties and frequency, and to catalog them for future study. The Triangulum galaxy M33 is a perfect test case. It has an absolute B-band magnitude of M_B~-19.2, a distance of ~0.96Mpc, and it has extensive optical, H{alpha}, MIR and FIR imaging.

Cone search capability for table J/ApJ/705/1364/table1 (MIR catalog for 53194 point sources in M33)