  Recent radiative lifetime measurements accurate to +/- 5% using laser-induced
fluorescence (LIF) on 43 even-parity and 15 odd-parity levels of Ce II have
been combined with new branching fractions measured using a Fourier transform
spectrometer (FTS) to determine transition probabilities for 921 lines of Ce
II. This improved laboratory data set has been used to determine a new solar
photospheric Ce abundance, log epsilon = 1.61 +/- 0.01 (sigma = 0.06 from 45
lines), a value in excellent agreement with the recommended meteoritic
abundance, log epsilon = 1.61 +/- 0.02. Revised Ce abundances have also been
derived for the r-process-rich metal-poor giant stars BD+17 3248, CS 22892-052,
CS 31082-001, HD 115444 and HD 221170. Between 26 and 40 lines were used for
determining the Ce abundance in these five stars, yielding a small statistical
uncertainty of 0.01 dex similar to the Solar result. The relative abundances in
the metal-poor stars of Ce and Eu, a nearly pure r-process element in the Sun,
matches r-process only model predictions for Solar System material. This
consistent match with small scatter over a wide range of stellar metallicities
lends support to these predictions of elemental fractions. A companion paper
includes an interpretation of these new precision abundance results for Ce as
well as new abundance results and interpretations for Pr, Dy and Tm.
