  We assembled a catalogue of bright, hot subdwarf and white dwarf stars
extracted from a joint ultraviolet, optical, and infrared source list. The
selection is secured using colour criteria that correlate well with effective
temperatures T_eff ~> 12,000 K. We built a N_UV-V versus V-J diagram for more
than 60,000 bright sources using the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) N_UV
magnitude (N_UV<14), and the associated Guide Star Catalog (GSC2.3.2)
photographic quick-V magnitude and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) J and
H magnitudes. This distillation process delivered a catalogue of approximately
700 sources with N_UV-V<0.5 comprising ~160 known hot subdwarf stars and
another ~60 known white dwarf stars. A reduced proper-motion diagram built
using the proper-motion measurements extracted from the Naval Observatory
Merged Astrometric Dataset allowed us to identify an additional ~120 new hot
subdwarf candidates and ~10 hot white dwarf candidates. We present a
spectroscopic study of a subset of 52 subdwarfs, 48 of them analysed here for
the first time, and with nine objects brighter than V ~ 12. Our sample of
spectroscopically confirmed hot subdwarfs comprises ten sdO stars and 42 sdB
stars suitable for pulsation and binary studies. We also present a study of 50
known white dwarfs selected in the GALEX survey and six new white dwarfs from
our catalogue of subluminous candidates. Ultraviolet, optical, and infrared
synthetic magnitudes employed in the selection and analysis of white dwarf
stars are listed in appendix.
