New distant companions to known nearby stars: I. GJ 4047B, GJ 718B, GJ 747.2C, GJ 4100B, and GJ 4153B

In an ongoing survey for high proper motion stars at low galactic latitudes, we have identified 5 previously uncatalogued common proper motion companions to stars listed in the Preliminary Version of the Third Catalogue of Nearby Stars (GJ stars). For each system, the relative proper motion between the components is less than 5% of the common proper motion of the pair. Spectra of the pairs have been obtained at the Lick 3-m Shane Telescope, confirming that the systems are indeed wide separation binaries. The systems are classified as follows: GJ 4047AB = K5 V + M5 V, GJ 718AB = K5 V + M4.5 V, GJ 747.2ABC = (K7 V + K7 V) + M4 Ve, GJ 4100AB = M1 V + M4.5 Ve, and GJ 4153AB = M0.5 V + M3.5 V. The total area surveyed contains 346 Gliese stars, which suggests that approximately 1.5% of the stars listed in the Preliminary Version of the Third Catalogue of Nearby Stars have unrecognized proper motion companions. We predict that 15-50 more new distant companions to GJ stars will be discovered in the Digitized Sky Survey.