This is the second in a series of papers presenting a new calculation of the mass of the Galaxy based on radial velocities and distances for a sample of faint 16<B<21.3 field blue horizontal-branch (BHB) stars. We present accurate BV CCD photometry and spectra for 142 candidate A-type stars selected from ubjr photometry of UK Schmidt telescope plates in six high-Galactic-latitude fields. Classification of these candidates produces a sample of 60 BHB stars at distances of 11-52kpc from the Sun (mean 28kpc), with heliocentric line-of-sight velocities accurate to 15km/s, and distance errors <10 per cent. We provide a summary table listing coordinates and velocities of these stars.
We report broadband UBV and/or BVR_C_I_C_ CCD photometry for a total of 1857 stars in the thick-disk and halo populations of the Galaxy. The majority of our targets were selected as candidate field horizontal-branch or other A-type stars (FHB/A, N=576), or candidate low-metallicity stars (N=1221), from the HK and Hamburg/ESO objective-prism surveys. Similar data for a small number of additional stars from other samples are also reported.